Sixty paramedics who passed their final year exams are still unaware if they will be employed in the primary sector, seven months after being called in for a job interview.
People from different professions will be informed about their engagement in the coming days- ministry
Physiotherapy, speech therapy, radiography and podiatry final year students were called in for job interviews before completing their course, and were led to believe they would soon be employed by the Government.
“We were even advised not to book a summer holiday abroad and were given the impression we’ll be absorbed into the system as is usually the case,” said Christian Ellul, president of the Malta Health Students’ Association, and one of the new podiatrists.
“But unlike nurses – who started being deployed around two months ago – we are still in the dark.
“In the meantime, we have missed our chance to further our studies.”
Mr Ellul said although the healthcare professionals were in possession of the official final exams results by the end of June and the Health Department issued classifications following the interviews, they were still being given conflicting information.
Some of them were told that the Government does not have the money to employ them, despite the shortage in staff.
Then on Friday, a Health Ministry spokesman told them the first batch of health professionals would be called in for deployment in the coming days.
The health ministry was asked by The Sunday Times to clarify when the first batch of health professionals would be called in, which healthcare professionals would be approached, and how many of these were physiotherapists, podiatrists, radiographers and speech language therapists.
But the ministry said that healthcare professionals will be informed “in the coming days” and that the interviews were held early to speed up the deployment process.
“People from different professions will be informed about their engagement in the coming days. Every effort has been made for a swift process, thus the early interviews,” a spokesman said.
Over the past weeks, these healthcare professionals approached various other entities and even e-mailed Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi who informed them that the health and finance ministers were working on the financial budgets for 2013.
These budget allocations would determine the maximum number of employees, he said.
MHSA board members who spoke to The Sunday Times said such an answer compounded their concerns since the Budget would allocatefunds for 2013, and this meant their employment would have to wait until next year.
They are also concerned that nurses would be given preference over the other healthcare professionals, even though there was a shortage of physiotherapists, speech therapists, radiographers and podiatrists in the primary health sector.
Long waiting lists have been reported in the radiography department, and the physiotherapy department is understaffed.
Some podiatry clinics had to shut down because of lack of staffing, and speech therapists have had to reduce the number of therapy sessions per person, they said.
Mr Ellul added that if primary health waiting lists were tackled by employing more healthcare professionals, the need for rehabilitation clinics would not be as high.