Nurses plan tough action

Nurses are all set to take "harsh industrial action" within two weeks, which would affect the running of all hospitals, unless they receive the next instalment of an allowance increase in their next pay cheque.

The planned action decided yesterday and which was not divulged, would hit admissions and treatment and have an impact on all types of surgery, the president of the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, Paul Pace told The Times.

The union is determined to issue directives if no agreement is reached by April 21 although a meeting scheduled for tomorrow with Mario Galea and Joe Cassar, the two parliamentary secretaries within the Social Policy Ministry, could go some way towards unblocking the dispute.

"Nurses cannot continue taking all the flak," an evidently angry Mr Pace said.

The industrial dispute revolves mainly around the €582.34 (Lm250) increase in the nursing premium per annum, which the union says was granted to nurses and midwives in an agreement signed last October.

But after receiving two instalments as part of the increase - one in October and another in February - nurses have been informed that the instalment due this month will not include the increase, with the union blaming "bureaucracy and old-fashioned practices" within the Treasury Department for this.

Union general secretary Colin Galea said the MUMN was told by the authorities that, since allowances are normally paid six months in arrears, the increase in allowance should not have been given in October and February and the next two instalments will, therefore, not include the increase. But this is being deemed unacceptable by the union, which fears the agreed premium increase will be whittled down as a result.

In a strong-worded statement, the union said it was well known that for the past six months nurses and midwives had been suffering from serious consequences due to staff shortage and were making sacrifices to keep the medical services going. These workers were already close to breaking down and this only served to demotivate them further.

Nurses are unhappy about other issues too.

"This was the last straw," Mr Pace said, adding that there are still problems plaguing Mater Dei Hospital, including a shortage of nurses and issues with staff meals.

Although last year the authorities had promised to recruit about 100 foreign nurses to address the shortage, only about 13 from Romania are due to be employed next month. He blamed this on "inefficient people" within the Health Division.

The 60-odd nurses who will be graduating this year are not even enough to replace those who retire or go out on maternity leave, he complained.

"We have been stretching and stretching nurses. We need some 400 nurses and in the next two to three years we will be easily needing about 1,000," he said. The shortage was leading to nurses being transferred from one ward to another to make ends meet.

Theatre nurses, for example, were being sent to wards over the weekend, a time usually dedicated to stocking up the theatres and readying them for the week ahead.

Nurses are also being transferred to the 30-bed day surgery ward, which is being used for medical inpatients because of a shortage of beds, he added.

The MUMN head said he wanted a guarantee that whoever applied for a nursing course and had the necessary qualifications would be accepted, with no numerus clausus being used as an excuse not to accept students.

At Mater Dei, the union is still battling to ensure that staff members who work in shifts of eight hours or more are entitled to a staff meal, something that has not yet been rectified since the new hospital opened last November.

"Now, to add insult to injury, they decided to stop giving the allowance. We have been extremely patient, even remaining quiet during the election campaign so that these issues are not politicised. But enough is enough," Mr Pace said.

When contacted for comment, the Social Policy Ministry said the issues related to nurses will be addressed in tomorrow's meeting.