Nurses at the Gozo Hospital will work to rule under directives issued by their union in protest at the lack of carers for the elderly.

The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses said that the hospital management had allowed a situation to develop where there was a shortage of carers over the past year to the detriment of the elderly patients in the St Anne ward.

The shortage was the result of the fact that carers had been transferred to other duties, including as security guards, but were not replaced.

About 20 carers were needed, the MUMN said.

The union said it had been pointing this out to the Health Division for more than a year but to no avail.

Carers were important support staff for nurses and, while nurses had been transferred from Malta to the Gozo hospital, more carers had not been recruited.

The union had given the authorities until October 15 to come up with a solution or face industrial action.

The deadline had elapsed and nothing had been done, leaving the union no choice but to issue the work-to-rule directives, the union said.