MUMN President Paul Pace said today that he was 'very sceptical' of the government's proposal to appoint theatre technicians and said it was not clear what the role of these technicians would be.

Speaking at a seminar for union activists, Mr Pace said It was not clear whether the technicians would actually replace the theatre nurses and what role they would have. However, he did not think that they would serve for an increase in the number of operations at Mater Dei.

Turning to primary health care reform, Mr Pace said that the union was dismayed that the government had issued a document to form a basis for a White Paper, without consulting the union. When the union protested the government promised that they would be consulted before the reform was implemented.

The Opposition spokesman on health,Michael Farrugia, said theatre technicians should not take the role of theatre nurses. The nurses, he said, were suffering from burn out and stress, and several had resigned as a result.

John Cachia, Director-General of Healthcare Services, said that costs were continuing to rise as a result of various factors, including the ageing population and the cost of medicine and equipment. He said that Mater Dei Hospital needed a financial controller to ensure that the €200m a year budget was spent well, and that there was no waste.

He referred to the breast screening programme and said the programme needed to have a 70 to 80% coverage rate of women aged over 50 for it to succeed.