Illegal directives issued by the nurses’ union were placing patients at risk, the government said yesterday, reminding nurses of their legal obligations.

The latest industrial actions by the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, deemed “irresponsible” by the government, directed nurses at Mount Carmel Hospital not to give treatment to patients if this was not brought to the ward by nurses themselves. Nurses were also told to leave the ward if patients become aggressive because they missed their treatment, the Health Ministry said. Such services were essential and had to continue being given, it insisted.

A young girl at Mount Carmel Hospital was deprived of her antiepileptic medication when MUMN nurses refused to administer the treatment because this was not delivered to the ward by them.

Doctors and the management intervened and treatment was administered later without her suffering any consequences, the Parliamentary Secretariat for Community Care said.

MUMN president Paul Pace said the government was responsible for what happened to the young patient. He said the pills were delivered late on purpose. “I informed the government one week before the industrial action to take provisional measures. If they don’t do it, it’s their fault. When the tablets arrived the nurses gave them to the girl.

The authorities knew the tablets were going to finish and took long to bring more on purpose, to make a fuss about it.”

Following the incident involving the girl, Parliamentary Secretary Mario Galea was in touch with MUMN secretary Colin Galea who assured Mr Galea that such actions would not be repeated in the case of the Youth Protection Unit.

The mental health hospital has been at the centre of industrial action ordered by the MUMN over the past months due to staff shortage, lack of policy and the lack of a generator.

Previous industrial action left nurses confined to bedside nursing and the management had to resort to subcontract nurses to pick up medicines from the pharmacy and take them to the ward.

However, the union insisted its members should not administer this medication once they did not deliver it to the ward themselves. According to hospital CEO Edward Borg this meant some patients missed the morning dose. Later in the day, through the intervention of management, all the patients received the treatment as prescribed by their consultant.

“I don’t think the interest of the patient is at heart. I think it’s more about politics,” an angry doctor said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the doctor said the situation had become ridiculous and was causing much frustration within the union due to nurses feeling this was posing an ethical conflict.

“Not all nurses are sticking to the directives. Some of our nurses put the interests of the patients first and are doing their best so patients do not suffer unnecessarily,” Mr Borg said.

“The Health Ministry is in the process of recruiting more nurses. When the selection process is completed, some of these nurses will be deployed here,” Mr Borg continued.

He said a generator in place could cover half of the hospital but the management was trying to procure other generators to meet the requirements of the whole hospital.

The ministry will be sending a letter to all nurses to remind them of their legal duties.

A letter was sent to the union, whereby the director general explained that such industrial action was called when there was no valid industrial dispute.

Mr Pace said the union would be writing to the EU “as there is no country in the EU where nurses have to go to the pharmacy themselves. This is not a matter of one girl missing a tablet, this is about a bigger problem.”

The ministry said mediation attempts by the government were met with a lack of interest by the union and the parliamentary secretary, who is recovering in Mater Dei Hospital, invited the union to meet with him in hospital to try and find a solution. The MUMN refused, the ministry said.

Health Minister Joe Cassar was scheduled to attend the 60th World Health Organisation regional committee meeting in Moscow but has cancelled the trip in the circumstances.