Emergency nurses harassed as bed shortages persist

Incensed patients and relatives are directing their anger over the bed shortage problem at the nursing staff, according to the Emergency Nurses Union which expressed its concern about the situation.

“People are fighting with us and criticising us but we are not bed management and there’s not much we can do,” union president John Zammit said when contacted yesterday.

Nurses were subject to verbal assaults, he said, and were threatened regularly by frustrated patients and relatives when told there was no bed in the ward and they would have to wait in a separate area or in the corridor, sometimes for hours or days.

They sometimes threatened the nurses by saying things like, “God forbid my mother is not taken up to the ward next”, or “If it was your mother you wouldn’t let her suffer in such a situation”. This was a cause of stress for nurses and leading to a hostile environment in the department, said Mr Zammit. “I’m not saying they are not right about the situation.” However, he pleaded with the public to understand that the situation was not in the hands of the nurses.

On Monday night, he said, there were some 40 patients in Area 2, a section of casualty, and in the corridor waiting to be transferred to the ward. In the first week of January the union had threatened industrial action over bed shortages. However, at the time the Health Ministry had blamed the problem on the influenza outbreak.

Although on January 12, the union had said an alternative site was being sought after discussions with the ministry, so that patients waiting for a bed would no longer crowd the Emergency Department, nothing had happened, Mr Zammit pointed out.

The Health Minister had also promised that beds in state hospitals were to be increased by 150 this year, 50 of them by the end of February, according to the union.

The union asked patients and relatives to cooperate with the nurses and contact the customer care or the ministry in case of complaints.