Nurses’ union withdraws threat of action as bed situation improves

The nurses’ union will not resort to industrial action after the situation at the day surgery ward, which has been suffering from bed shortage, “improved drastically” since last week, union president Paul Pace said.

Last Thursday, the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses gave the hospital authorities until yesterday to address the problem.

At the time only 14 out of 65 beds in the day surgery unit were being used for the intended purpose. The bulk of the area was being allocated to patients after they had been seen in the casualty department.

Since then the situation has improved and only 12 beds were taken up by medical cases, compared to the over 30 cases last week. This, Mr Pace said, was reasonable and allowed nurses to work without jeopardising health and safety.

“This shows the actions of MUMN help to get things moving. We never said we would resort to industrial action the following day but gave the authorities enough time to solve the bed shortage because we knew it was possible and in the interest of patients and nurses.”

Last week, after the MUMN pointed out the severity of the bed shortage situation, The Times contacted the Medical Association of Malta, which represents doctors, and the Emergency Nurses’ Union. They agreed the situation was unacceptable and said they might have to resort to industrial action in future.

The three unions also agreed the bed remodelling exercise, proposed by the government to address the bed shortage, was a waste of time since the problems were already known and urgent action was necessary.

Problems included the lack of geriatric and palliative care services.

However, the Health Ministry insisted the remodelling exercise was essential to redistribute beds and staff according to the actual needs of the hospital and make it more efficient.