Juan Ameen
Ambulance service faces disruption
'Workers still waiting for the promised €11,000 allowance'
Ambulance drivers were yesterday ordered not to tend to emergency calls unless accompanied by a nurse and doctor until a board of inquiry investigated claims of discrimination.
The dispute revolves around a claim that ambulance drivers at St Luke's Hospital were favoured at the expense of those employed at Mater Dei Hospital.
The Social Policy Ministry said it could not understand why industrial action was being taken when the only outcome was hardship for patients.
It added that union officials had participated in a meeting to solve the points raised.
It appealed to the public to call ambulances only when absolutely necessary.
The Health Department apologised to the public and called for its cooperation.
It also hoped that common sense would prevail.
The president of the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin, Gejtu Tanti told a news conference held in front of Mater Dei yesterday, that on March 13 the union had held a four-hour long meeting with Finance Minister Tonio Fenech and Health Parliamentary Secretary Joe Cassar and set several deadlines to resolve different disputes they had. None of them were met, he said.
The actions follow a threat on Monday by the Malta Unions of Midwives and Nurses to call a strike among nurses working in operating theatres. The surgery standstill was averted after their main request to have nurses supplied with protective gowns was temporarily met.
Union general secretary Gejtu Vella said the government was sleeping over the health sector, commenting that more energy was dedicated to inaugurating the new hospital than looking after the staff.
The union tried to solve the pending problems because it did not want to endanger patients' lives, he said. However, given the government's inertia, it was forced to order action.
Since 2006, the union registered several industrial disputes with the health sector in relation to dentistry, paramedic aids and the lack of parking at Mater Dei for medical support staff, the secretary of the union's health section, Joe Bonello, said.
On one issue an agreement was possibly round the corner. The union was promised that by May 20 paramedic aides would be given a one-off allowance of €1,500, as stipulated in a collective agreement signed in July. Hopefully, the government would keep its promise, Mr Tanti said.
Nursing aides and other care workers, however, were still waiting for the promised €11,000 allowance they should have received by the end of March, Mr Tanti said.
The union also has an ongoing dispute with the hospital authorities because nurses and paramedic aids who worked the required 10 hours a day were still not given food allowance.
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Jos Vella
Apr 17th 2009, 09:23
Hey Ambulance Drivers, here is an idea, instead of roping in innocent people in your problem, what about adopting the following orders:-
1) do not attend to emergency calls dialled from Castille Palace;
2) drive all patients to St Lukes for 30 days and look at your paychit at the end of month, who knows??
Mater Dei Hospital has brought big changes; your pay is just one case in point. Another example is how come that MDH is much much more cleaner than St Lukes; why is it that the canteen at MDH is more hygenic? There is a new way of doing business these days, and that is Outsorcing? Just pray that this will not happen to you because apart from a slight change in your pay (what you are experiencing now) you may end up without your job.
Charles J Zammit
Apr 16th 2009, 18:33
It is time that Paramedics take over ambulances . Of course this will be done gradually , and it will be a massive step .Training takes time , but surely we have enough intelligent people that would gladly take up this profession as a career .I also would think that the job being so attractive it would move young people towards this one of the most honourable of professions .
debono.l.
Apr 16th 2009, 17:56
I would like to sympathize with the ambulance drivers, and encourge them
to fight for their rights even if it might sound abit negative to the
patients but unfortunately when a stike is done someone will surely
suffer. the management at Mater Dei and even other management sections
in the Dept of Health are all the time being negative towards their
employees, these include doctors, nurses, and other paramedical staff.
it was planned that the Ambulance Service from MDH would have been more
effecient and reliable, but unfortunately the key persons who were
suppose to manage the so called "Pre-Hospital " section, which should
have included Emergency Nurses, Ambulance Drivers and Porters, were
faced out from their supposed job. till today there are no specific
nurses within the Pre-hospital section, but there's only a Nursing
Officer and a Nurse who are trying to organise this Specialized section
without any Human resources and NO funds at all.
ambulance drivers are split again, and sometimes one can notice that you
will have more drivers at work rather than having ambulances.
ironically, to cover the whole island on a 24/7 hr basis, we have only 7
ambulances.
G Fenech
Apr 16th 2009, 16:45
@J Fenech
Ambulance calls to traffis accidents always have a nurse on board.....so they will not be affected by industrial action. The ones affected will be the ones where only a driver and a porter are sent. These are calls which in the UK an ambulance would not be sent, and the caller would be advised to call a taxi!
J Farrugia
Apr 16th 2009, 16:28
God help those ambulance drivers who fail to make it in time at an scene of accident, because of them following a trade union directive. No mercy will be shown.
d briffa
Apr 16th 2009, 11:13
I think that its about time that the governemtn wakes up from the heavy sleep that its been going through for the past years and starts taking the ambulance service seriously...
A proper ambulance service is not made up only of roaring sirens and flashing lights on vans with stickers " ambulanza" on them..it goes far beyond that..
but unfortunately.. the big heads heads down at palzzo castellania don't have even the smallest of idea of what an ambulace service is all about..
Unfortunately.. the ambulance service here in malta is just a gimmick..
Gauci Gorga
Apr 16th 2009, 10:40
Mela mhux MUMN il-problema.... imma xi haddiehor!!! Kull UNION ghanda l-problemi mal- Gvern... suppost flimkien kollox possibli..... possibli li l-poplu qed isoffri mill-impossibli!!!!