(Adds government's denial)

Students sitting for a diploma in nursing are being paid for just 80 out of the 300-hour placement in summer, 70 hours less than in previous years, the Labour Party's health spokesman Marie Louise Coleiro Preca said.

She said that the placement was an integral part of their course so they had no choice but to accept the government's unilateral decisons.

Mrs Coleiro-Preca noted that while the government always found millions to spend on things which were not a priority for the country, such as on the bridge to nowhere in Valletta, it was being miserly with students, further burdening their families as a result.

Such an attitude was shameful, she said.

In a statement this afternoon, the government however denied any changes were made to the placement payment they received in previous year.