The nurses’ union had threatened to close down all the government’s health centres on the same day Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia tendered his resignation.
In an e-mail sent to the ministry’s permanent secretary and seen by Times of Malta, MUMN president Paul Pace lambasted the government’s decision to reopen two wards at St Luke’s Hospital and threatened to close down all the island’s health clinics if “the vacation leave of nurses” was affected.
Calling the reopening of wards at St Luke’s a sign of crisis management, Mr Pace warned that no nurses should be touched or transferred to the “panic wards”.
“I challenge the minister to even try such strategy,” Mr Pace warned.
Last Friday Times of Malta reported that hospital beds were being transferred from St Philip’s Hospital to St Luke’s as the government was planning to reopen two wards there to have more beds to treat patients.
This was later confirmed by the ministry which explained that the wards were intended to host long-term patients.
Although relations between the MUMN and the ministry had turned sour a while back, Mr Pace yesterday told this newspaper that reopening St Luke’s was “the last straw which broke the camel’s back”.
“The minister’s resignation is a good sign for the public health services in Malta. We have nothing personal against Dr Farrugia but he was not up to the job. We had even told the Prime Minister about this even though we never asked for his replacement,” he said.
Mr Pace added that he was very angry at the way the ministry had decided to reopen St Luke’s and the unions were never consulted over this bold step.
“Over the last year, I always learnt about decisions on the health sector from Times of Malta,” he lamented.
“It was evident that the government did not have a roadmap in the health sector and if it had it was never communicated to us.”
Asked whether the departure of Dr Farrugia would solve any problems in the health sector, Mr Pace said there had to be a holistic plan if current problems were to be addressed.
He said that, although one of the issues was the need for more beds, it did not make sense that these matters were being decided overnight.