Hospital staff shortage 'being tackled'

The shortage of nursing support staff at St Luke's Hospital, which the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses says is keeping nurses from giving patients optimal attention, is being tackled by the health authorities, a spokesman for the Health Division assured The Times yesterday.

The spokesman said the authorities were trying to identify staff who could be deployed to perform the necessary duties.

The MUMN on Monday lamented that hospital was suffering from an "exaggerated shortage" of nursing aides, health assistants, cleaners, porters, couriers and ward clerks. Since their work had to be done by nurses, the latter were having less time to dedicate to patients.

Answering questions by The Times, the division spokesman accepted there was lack of nursing support staff, adding that measures are in hand to address the issue.

The union also claimed there is a shortage of nurses and midwives at hospital. Questioned about this, the spokesman said the division agreed "that there might be some deficiencies, but perhaps not to the extent claimed by the MUMN".

The union has said that certain wards are ending up with just one nurse as the others would be doing work outside the ward given the shortage of support staff. In reply to this, the spokesman said that although this could happen, it was very much the exception rather than the rule.

The MUMN referred to scientific studies by the International Council of Nurses indicating that shortages of nurses and support staff increase patient deaths as well as the spread of infectious diseases.

The spokesman said that, theoretically, the higher the nurse-patient ratio, the better the quality of care provided, although this levelled off once the required nursing complement was reached.