Student nurses and midwives should be given a minimum wage instead of a stipend to increase incentives for students to join such professions, their union said today as it presented its Budget proposals.

The minimum wage was already granted to nursing students in the recent past when the nurses' shortage situation in Malta was as "dreadful", the MUMN said. 

This system was then transformed back again to stipends when the government believed the shortage of nurses issue no longer existed.

MUMN said it is also aware of the serious situation the country is facing with the waiting list for elderly people to find an institutional home to stay.

The union said it is convinced that if proper grants will be given to the families to take care for their relatives there would be a win-win situation, as the government will be paying less. This would also help in alleviating the problems of overcrowding in hospitals.

 

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