Government to recruit foreign nurses

The health authorities will be making "an extra effort" to recruit nurses from other EU countries, a spokesman for the Health Division said yesterday.

The nurses will be employed "as soon as possible", according to the spokesman.

A call for applications has been made because of a shortage in the health sector.

More than 200 more nurses are needed to maintain current services and provide for the required expansion of services as a result of the migration to Mater Dei Hospital. The health authorities will first attempt to recruit all the newly qualified nurses and to entice nurses who left the workforce to return to the pubic service.

So far, the response has been encouraging, the spokesman said. "When we know the number of newly-qualified nurses and returnees, the number of foreign recruits will be determined. It is too early to give a final figure," the spokesman said when contacted by The Times.

The government's policy to recruit nurses locally and from other EU countries has been in place since Malta's EU accession in 2004.

No particular country is being targeted, but the nurses need to be English-speaking. EU citizens can be provided either with a fixed-term or with an indefinite contract, the spokesman said.

When contacted, Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses president Paul Pace said as a short-term measure the government had no choice but to employ a number of foreigners since there were currently not enough nurses to sustain migration.

However, he said, the union and the authorities were currently discussing a new agreement including measures to retain nurses and improve working conditions.

Hopefully, this should lead to Malta being self-sufficient within a few years, he said.

The union will not agree to the recruitment of foreign nurses as long as the agreement on working conditions is not finalised, Mr Pace added.