A hospital task force set up to alleviate overcrowding issues at Mater Dei Hospital would not be able to function unless the nurses’ union came on board, Health Minister Joe Cassar has conceded.
“No, it can’t work,” Dr Cassar candidly admitted when asked about the possibility of the task force operating without the participation of the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN).
The minister was speaking in an interview to be published in The Sunday Times tomorrow.
The decision to appoint a task force has been met by a degree of public cynicism but Dr Cassar insisted the idea had not been conjured out of thin air.
“This task force is a continuum. It follows on from the work done by an inter-ministerial task force but it seems people don’t keep abreast of the news,” he said.
Stakeholders involved in this most recent task force would be analysing recommendations made by the inter-ministerial task force and seeing how to best implement them, he added.
Dr Cassar dismissed claims that clashes between nurses and doctors were at the root of problems at Mater Dei. “For crying out loud,” Dr Cassar exclaimed, “tension between doctors and nurses dates back to time immemorial.”
Announced earlier this week, the task force is comprised of government, medical and union representatives. The decision to appoint it was taken at a stakeholder meeting boycotted by the MUMN.
The union subsequently announced it would not be joining the task force, citing an unhealthy climate for discussion and saying its decision was “final and will not be revoked”.
Its decision came in the wake of comments made by the president of the Medical Association of Malta, Martin Balzan, who said there was no room for “militant trade unionism” within the task force.
Overcrowding issues have repeatedly plagued Mater Dei, with 7,500 patients having been treated in hospital corridors in 2011. A spike in admissions over the past months has seen problems reoccur.
A ministry attempt to extend a temporary arrangement to transfer 21 beds from Mater Dei to St Vincent de Paul nursing home was foiled by an MUMN directive ordering nurses not to take in new patients once the 21 beds were vacated.
MUMN president Paul Pace has insisted nurses cannot cope with the repeated extension of such agreements. “How many times can you extend a so-called temporary agreement before it becomes permanent,” he asked.