There is something perversely comic about one of the three bones of contention in the current spat between nurses and midwives, on the one hand, and the government on the other. Readers will recall that in September a nurse reported finding the head of a mouse in her salad while eating in hospital. Understandably, this caused a frisson of disgust.

Two consequences of that unwelcome appearance were that the catering company was taken to court and hospital staff were given a meal allowance. Doctors and nurses are unhappy with this and, presumably, wish matters to revert to what they used to be. It does not require much intelligence to conclude that this difference, such as it is, ought never to have developed into a pitched battle. But it has and what with a bit of good will could have been solved overnight has now assumed a magnitude out of all proportion to the mouse that presumably or ostensibly started it.

Another bone of contention between the government and the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN) - staff shortages - is more of a gnaw but not such that it should have contributed to the industrial action - nurses and midwives are obeying instructions not to carry out duties that have nothing to do with nursing, including clerical work - called by the union. Here again, instead of choking on the bone, and with some common sense, the two parties in the dispute could have avoided it altogether.

When the MUMN starts getting hot under the collar over staff shortages it may be reasonably asked to explain why it has changed its mind on the idea of employing foreign nurses as a stop-gap measure. Its demand for a long-term manpower plan that takes into account developments that have taken, and are taking, place in the health sector is not unreasonable. Nor is the government's insistence that such a plan should be based not merely on numbers but on the various categories that make up those numbers.

There simply is no good reason for industrial action to be taken, still less for threats from the union that it will ratchet up the scale of industrial action to the level of a full strike if the government does not act. The union should be far more circumspect when it considers a situation that will affect all hospitals and health centres. This is no more a matter of salad or shortage but of the discomfort of patients in a situation where they need all the help and comfort they can get. The salad can be disposed of tomorrow; the shortage will obviously take more time.

This will demand of the union that it reneges on its decision to go back on its word about the employment of foreign nurses. In equal measure, it demands of the government that it does draw up a long-term manpower plan as a matter of strategy. There is no reason on earth why such a plan is not worked upon as a matter of urgency and the MUMN should fully cooperate in such an exercise.

The third difference between the two sides is the matter of nurses being awarded a professional warrant, which the MUMN insists was promised a year ago. Again, this is not an obstacle that should remain in the way. If nurses were promised a warrant, let them receive it and let us get back to a blessed state of common sense.