Stalemate in nurses’ dispute

No headway was made yesterday during a meeting between the health minister and nurses union to resolve its “illegal” industrial action, amid warnings that the union’s actions could endanger patients’ lives.

Director general for health services John Cachia yesterday addressed a letter to key nurses reminding them to comply with their legal obligation to provide essential services. The ministry refused to comment further at this stage.

In protest at staff shortages, industrial action by the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses escalated on Friday when union nurses were instructed not to pick up treatment from the Mater Dei pharmacy, not to give the treatment which was brought to the ward by subcontracted nurses, and to leave the ward if patients became aggressive due to missing treatment.

The directives were deemed “illegal” and “irresponsible” by the government.

MUMN president Paul Pace told The Sunday Times: “The government is not taking it seriously.”

Mr Pace said nurses were being told regularly that their vacation leave was cancelled and forced to work overtime, sometimes clocking up some 80 hours per week, due to the staff shortages.

“The nurses are not putting patients’ lives at risk because the patients receive treatment eventually... They are administering all essential treatment, so they will continue following the directives,” he said.

Mr Pace said nursing aids should be picking up medicines, so that the few nurses available could focus on their main job – bedside ­nursing.

However, an industrial law expert said the government was right to take a stand that it was unacceptable for a patient’s life to be put in danger, even if it was to blame for the dispute.

“Even if the government was warned from a week before, even if there is a valid industrial dispute, people’s lives should not be put in danger,” industrial lawyer Andrew Borg Cardona said.

“You shouldn’t inconvenience people, let alone put their lives in danger. This dispute is not about something that is going to happen today or tomorrow. There isn’t somebody about to die because of a health and safety problem. Keep arguing, but don’t put somebody’s life in danger,” he said.

A young girl at Mount Carmel Hospital was nearly deprived of her anti-epilepsy medication as a result of the union’s directives on Friday. The management intervened and no consequences were suffered by the girl.

The MUMN is protesting against a nursing shortage and is also complaining about the lack of policy and a generator to cover Mount Carmel Hospital.

The union is particularly irked about the numerus clausus for the nursing course at University, which it claims excludes potential nursing students from the course.

Labour social policy spokesman Michael Farrugia yesterday said everything possible should be done to accept students with qualifications in light of the nursing shortage.

When asked whether he felt the removal of the numerus clausus would lead to a drop in nursing standards, Dr Farrugia said: “It is not the first time qualification levels, in the medicine course in particular, were lowered to allow certain students in, and then were raised again the following year.”

However, he declined to comment on the legality of the ongoing industrial dispute, saying he did not want to act as the judge between the union and the government.

The University said that so far no students had been left out of the nursing course, as they are still waiting for the results of the Matsec resits to be published at the end of September.