The MUMN has directed nurses to send patients who turn up at Mater Dei Hospital for non-urgent operations to the customer care department.
Similarly, patients calling for a check-up prior to operations and those who call for reviews or change of dressings would be directed to customer care.
In a statement, the union said that since there are no policies in Mater Dei Hospital that regulate the administration of change of dressings procedures and follow-up cases, after a patient has been discharged, is has issued the directives to nurses for better hospital practices and to reduce hardships on patients.
"Although the MUMN had been stressing these points with the hospital administration for these last four years, unfortunately till today, patients needing non-urgent operations are being brought to Mater Dei Hospital at seven in the morning even though they are only given a bed late in the afternoon. Such patients are being left waiting in the reception area or in the kitchen of various surgical wards on chairs where no one can attend to their basic needs," the union said.
It said that all those going to hospital for non urgent operations should first phone or else go straight to the customer care office so as to reduce their waiting time.
"Nurses will no longer accept such patients in waiting rooms or in the ward kitchens unattended, and they will be sent to customer care. MUMN always insisted with the management of Mater Dei Hospital that such patients, as in the truly state of the art hospitals, should either call from home to customer care to check if a bed is vacant or be sent in an admission lounge to wait comfortably while someone attends to their needs," the union said.
It added that patients calling for a check-up prior to an operation will also be sent to customer care.
"Unfortunately at Mater Dei Hospital there are surgeons who comply with regulations and send their patients to the pre-operative clinic while there are surgeons who challenge hospital authorities and send their clients for their check up in the ward."
The union said the wards cannot serve as an outpatient department and both the design and the nursing staff numbers are calculated on the basis of in-patients.
"It is a pity that the hospital management feels impotent in front of this small number of surgeons and do not take further steps to regulate the matter. Therefore the MUMN is issuing a directive to the nurses to direct the members of the general public coming for a check-up prior any operation to go to customer care. Nurses are directed to refuse such persons on the wards since there would be no nurses to take care of them. The limited number of nurses present in the wards is there to focus on the patients recovering after a general operation," the union said.
CHANGE OF DRESSING
With regard to patients who had been discharged from the hospital but need a change of dressing, the union said that if the consultant, for clinical reasons, wants to review such patients, this should not be done not in the wards but in his outpatient’s clinic.
"It is convenient for certain surgeons to treat certain private clients with special privileges in order to jump queues with the excuse of ‘clinical’ reasons. It is a pity that the hospital administration is too weak and too feeble when certain consultant surgeons challenge basic principles. While the majority of the surgeons cooperate with management, certain surgeons feel that they should not to for their own personal reasons," the union said.
It therefore directed nurses in such cases to also sent patients to the customer care office for direction to the proper places for such treatment.
The union said other European Hospitals have clear protocols and polices that regulate operative measures which are all patients’ friendly with the least waiting time possible.
"Unfortunately Mater Dei Hospital never embraced any patient friendly measures since the rule of the mightiest is the rule of the day."