Political parties should come together and jointly agree on new working conditions for hospital consultants, whose contracts were up for renewal in January, the president of the nurses’ union said.
I imagine the Health Minister doesn’t have the stomach to battle consultants with a general election just round the corner
Upbraiding consultants for the hours they work – “they should be available until 6 p.m... Mater Dei is the only hospital in the world where consultants leave at 1 p.m.”, the president of the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, Paul Pace urges politicians to grasp the nettle.
“I imagine the Health Minister doesn’t have the stomach to battle consultants with a general election just round the corner. So let’s see political parties have their own joint task force, without unions, and sort out consultants’ working practices once and for all,” Mr Pace said.
Consultant job plans were formulated on a yearly basis, essentially meaning their contracts were renewed or re-evaluated every January, a Health Ministry official confirmed.
Mr Pace reiterated his willingness to meet Health Minister Joseph Cassar “tomorrow morning” to discuss changing nurses’ work practices, charging that consultants would be averse to any such changes.
“The Medical Association of Malta has implied it would want to get paid overtime rates for afternoon duties. Consultants aren’t normal workers, they’re top professionals. A consultant gets paid more than a minister. How can they justify asking for overtime?”
He cited the MAM’s criticism of a circular on operating theatre workflows as further evidence of their reluctance to change. The doctors’ union said the circular would result in fewer operations taking place.
But, according to Mr Pace, there was nothing new about the instructions. “The same circular was issued in 2006 and again in 2009. It just reminds doctors of the proper workflow procedures because things were getting out of hand. It’s common sense to postpone operations by a couple of days if no ITU beds are available.”
The imminent expiry of consultants’ hospital contracts was a “golden opportunity” for the country to sort out the situation once and for all, Mr Pace argued.
“It’s time consultants were given the option of working with the government or else going completely private. They can’t have their cake and eat it,” Mr Pace insisted. The Union president also argued that if faced with the choice, many consultants would remain within the public sector because those who gave up their public hospital work would lose the right to refer people to Mater Dei or issue pink or yellow medicinal cards, costing them multiple clients.
“Besides, there are plenty of fully-qualified senior registrars just waiting for a vacant consultancy post to be made available,” he added.
The MAM has defended its members from charges of inflexibility, pointing to a 10 per cent year-on-year increase in the number of operations . It said hospital consultants have always gone out of their way to accommodate patients, even turning up on Sundays when needed.