Union president mum on conditions to lift directives

The nurses’ union is refusing to reveal what conditions it expects the government to satisfy before halting industrial action in hospitals.

“The (health) minister knows these things. I promised not to divulge and I’m loyal... He is quite an approachable person. And I say this publicly, I think sometimes he lacks leadership,” the president of the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, Paul Pace said.

Over the past few weeks, the MUMN has been stepping up its controversial industrial actions in hospitals. The actions have been deemed “irresponsible” and “illegal” by the government.

Mr Pace said there was a whole list of issues in different hospitals which had to be addressed and the minister “knows them all”.

However, he would not give the full list, citing only nurses’ shortage, keeping new services shelved until this was addressed, the absence of a generator at Mount Carmel Hospital and lack of policies.

“The minister knows what we want. I, as MUMN, have my doors open for any meetings but I’m not requesting them so don’t put any conditions on me. If he calls me for a meeting, I would go and meet him,” Mr Pace said.

The Health Ministry urged the union to withdraw its directives, including the one ordering nurses not to collect dangerous drugs from the pharmacy, saying that, according to policy, such medicines could only be collected by nurses or pharmacists.

In the meantime, the MUMN altered one of its directives and nurses were now administering medicines to patients but they were not collecting the medicines themselves, the Health Ministry said.

A ministry spokesman said this was positive but stressed that “the government will not discuss issues until all directives are withdrawn”.

She added the ministry had invited the general secretary of the European Federation of Nurses, Paul de Reve to Malta after the organisation issued a press release backing the MUMN yesterday, which the ministry described as “inaccurate and misleading”.

When asked why Mount Carmel was not completely covered by a generator, one of the union’s requests, the ministry said there had never been a stand-by generator covering the whole hospital because there was no life-saving equipment that had to be kept going at all times. In addition, the hospital had no intensive therapy unit or operating theatres.

“The management is locating and testing generators within the department that are still in good running condition but are not being used. Buying a number of generators is also being considered,” the spokesman said.

The union is also upset at the numerus clausus imposed by the University on its nursing course, saying such a restriction should not exist when there was such a huge shortage.

The University said, when contacted, that, this year, the total number of those who would be accepted for nursing courses stood at 165, which included 23 mature students who applied last year and who sat and passed a proficiency test.

“The course programmes have already been changed to accommodate more students, notably by decreasing the course programmes from four to three years,” it said.

The numerus clausus was meant to ensure nursing students achieved the required competencies, the University said. By raising the amount of students admitted to the courses, the quality of the education received by the students would be jeopardised and, consequently, the standards of nursing care would be compromised, it said.