Health Minister Joe Cassar has laid into the nurses’ union management, saying it does not enjoy the support of many nurses, and openly questioned similarities between positions of the union and the Labour Party.

“There are so many nurses meeting me and dissociating themselves from the MUMN’s current administration,” Dr Cassar tells The Sunday Times in a forthright interview.

The minister acknowledged the existence of overcrowding issues in Mater Dei Hospital’s emergency room but called for the public not to be swayed by the distorted image projected by a “vociferous” online minority.

Dr Cassar said the “real problem” at Mater Dei Hospital was the failure to update work practices to modern-day realities, and voiced his frustration at doctors’ and nurses’ apparent unwillingness to change unless financially compensated.

He also felt that the public had to shoulder some responsibility for the current situation, saying that people had to have better faith in doctors’ decisions to discharge and make better use of regional health centres.

Dr Cassar also called on politicians on both sides of the political spectrum to stop sending him SMSs asking him to reinstate discharged patients.