Two weeks ago I was admitted to Mater Dei Hospital because I was involved in a motorcycle accident. I can confirm that we really have a state-of-the-art hospital but I can likewise confirm, with more conviction, that the dearth of staff at hospital, particularly that of nurses, is affecting negatively all medical and paramedical staff and especially the patients themselves.
Like other patients in my ward, I was not operated on the day of my admission or the day after. We had to keep on bearing our pain even longer. Three of us were told that day at 3.30 p.m. that we would have to wait for yet another day! It was little consolation to be told by the nurses in the ward that they did not have any control over the situation, for it all depended on other priority/emergency cases that unexpectedly crop up and that ultimately, it was the consultant/surgeon who decides.
We patients were all asking the same question: How was it possible that such a state-of-the-art hospital had half of its operating theatres closed owing to lack of staff? The issue of lack of nursing staff is ill-affecting the ward itself. Nurses are constantly under heavy pressure and the demands on them are really overwhelming. I really admired their constant effort to try to do their job professionally and up to required standards even under so much pressure!
It seems that we need more than 300 nurses to solve part of the staff shortage problem, and I was told that government has been trying hard to recruit foreign nurses in order to ease the pressure and increase efficiency. I was also told that efforts were being made by government to start a new course for nursing technicians so that the closed operating theatres would start to function. It seems that the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses is totally against this initiative. Without blaming either the government or the nurses' unions, one issue which is clear to all is that staff shortage is rendering a poor service at hospital. More effort is needed by the government, unions and consultants alike to find a solution, keeping the common good of the patients as the guiding principle.
I thank all medical and paramedical staff who helped me during my stay. We really have competent and experienced consultants/surgeons and nurses. I really wish and pray that the personnel issue, which is ultimately a justice issue, be solved as soon as possible so that we can really boast that we have one of the best healthcare services in Europe!