Nurses' industrial action affecting 240 patients every day
Parliamentary Secretary confirms Oncology Centre to move to Mater Dei Hospital
The industrial action currently being taken by the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses is, every day, affecting 240 patients who are unable to have samples of their blood taken at health centres for testing, Parliamentary Secretary Joseph Cassar said this afternoon.
The MUMN has ordered nurses to refuse non-nursing duty as it presses the government to recruit more nurses.
Describing the action as unjust, Dr Cassar said the MUMN knew that the government was committed to employing more nurses but nurses were not hatched and they had to be graduates.
He said the government wanted to engage more nurses so that it could also make better use of operating theatres. Although 122 nurses were employed by the Health Department this year, their number was still not enough to meet the ever increasing demand for surgery.
Referring to statements by Labour leader Joseph Muscat, Dr Cassar said that the government had decided to build a new oncology centre at Mater Dei Hospital, instead of moving the current one from Boffa to Zammit Clapp Hospitals ,as part of a revision of the Health Department’s capital projects.
The revision was meant to ensure that decisions were taken responsibly; that they were financially sustainable and centred on patients. It made clinical sense to have this new centre in the vicinity of a general hospital because many of the services required by patients were already provided at Mater Dei.
The government was also exploring the possibility of having this centre co-funded by the EU.
On waiting lists for operations, Dr Cassar admitted that they were too long in certain sectors. He said creativity was needed to solve this problem. Plans were being prepared for three new operating theatres to start being used to increase the number of ophthalmic and orthopaedic operations, where the lists were longest.
The Parliamentary Secretary said that the Foundation for Medical Services together with the University, was carrying out an energy audit at Mater Dei Hospital to implement alternative energy solutions.
On breast screening, Dr Cassar said that the government was preparing for the implementation of the programme. It wanted screening to be based in the community.In the first nine months of this year 3,616 mammograms were carried out - 500 more than last year.
To help the fight against cancer, the government was also investing in a €2m PET scanner to be mostly financed by the Swiss government. The government was also seeing how it could also invest in a cyclotron facility, which produced the chemical used in this scan.
He said that besides Herceptin, the government was also seeing how it could provide new and more effective medicines for rarer forms of cancer.
The process for the procurement of medicines was also being reformed to increase efficiency, transparency and value for money, Dr Cassar said.
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Carmel Vella
Nov 14th 2008, 19:03
The revision was meant to ensure that decisions were taken responsibly; that they were financially sustainable and centred on patients. It made clinical sense to have this new centre in the vicinity of a general hospital because many of the services required by patients were already provided at Mater Dei.
Does this mean that the previous decision to take the Oncology services to ZCH was irresponsible, financially unsustainable and not patient centered, besides not making clinical sense.
@ Joseph Briffa
Blood taking is not a nursing duty that is the role of the phlebotomist. However nurses were taking blood in Health Centres as a gesture of goodwill.
Joe Vella
Nov 14th 2008, 18:42
@ Steve Rogers
Only if things were as simple as issuing a call of application to recruit new nurses from within the EU. Shortage of nurses is a worldwide phenomenon. It is like squeezing water out of a rock.
I believe the biggest challenge for the Government is to retain the new graduates from going and work oversees.
Joseph E Briffa
Nov 14th 2008, 16:29
I'm missing something here.. (1) It is my understanding that the MUMN considers that taking blood samples is not a nurse's job; if that is the case, then who is supposed to do this job? (2) If there is till a shortage of nurses despite the recruitment of an additional 122 this year, it appears that government has two options; either to tap foreign sources - which isn't easy either as the UK also has a shortage; or to wait for the students nurses to graduate. The MUMN must have considered these two options and made some sort of recommendations to the Health Authorites which, I must assume, have considered and have come back to MUMN with counterproposals. Can any body come up with some clarification on the issue? In the meantime both the Authorities and the MUMN must appreciate that the victims are the patients; and they should both act responsibly and endeavour to resolve the matter asap.
C. Camilleri
Nov 14th 2008, 15:11
Where do we find employees not doing their full duties and being paid in full? The taxpayer is paying these nurses their full pay for doing a full day's work. Now that they are doing part or nothing then Govt should save guard the tax payer's money and cut their pay. Do these things happen in private concern? Of course not because the owners take care of their money. Who is taking care of our money? Govt should not allow these abuses any more. While public employees are indulging in this luxury the private employees are struggling to hold on to their job. This is what the unions should be looking into and not go for the gallery by marching through the streets of Valletta.
Steve Rogers
Nov 14th 2008, 14:22
"Describing the action as unjust, Dr Cassar said the MUMN knew that the government was committed to employing more nurses but nurses were not hatched and they had to be graduates."
Dr Cassar, we are in the EU now. You can issue a call of applications in another EU Member State and recruit from there!!
The reason why such strikes are called is to safeguard both nurses AND PATIENTS. If hospitals are understaffed that means the extra load is shifted on the personnel present; this leads to fatigue and this can lead to mistakes and accidents occuring.
Stop fooling us; we know what we can and cannot do in the EU.