Podiatrists in health centres have stopped providing a range of services as they stepped up industrial action yesterday over what the say is government inaction.

The services at a standstill include the treatment of ulcers as well as dermatological assessments and treatments. Patients considered to be urgent cases will still be treated.

The Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin and the Podiatrists’ Association said they had given government until yesterday to abide by an agreement, reached a year ago, and implement reforms.

They noted that the government had made a commitment to increase support staff to implement specific reforms. But there had so far been no indication extra staff were going to be taken on.

Due to the lack of support, podiatrists had less time with patients who required regular and focused care. These were often vulnerable elderly people, diabetic patients and those with significant biomechanical problems, the union and association claimed.

These longstanding problems had been hindering the implementation of much-needed reforms, which included the provision of a patient-oriented service.

Christopher Ellul, from the Podiatrists’ Association, said podiatrists were overloaded and were wasting a lot of time carrying out cosmetic duties, such as nail-cutting, when that work could be done by assistants.

Because of this workload, podiatrists only had 15 minutes to see each patient and this was not sufficient in most cases.

Questions sent to the Health Parliamentary Secretariat remained unanswered by the time of writing.