The nurses' union said this morning that it did not know from where the authorities would get the 60 nurses necessary for Sir Paul Boffa Hospital to be used as a general hospital by the end of the year.
The MUMN was reacting to comments by Parliamentary Secretary Chris Fearne that once oncology services migrate from Boffa to the Sir Anthony Mamo hospital, the Floriana building would be refurbished and used as a hospital, taking some of the load off Mater Dei.
The union said it was challenging Mr Fearne to say where the nurses would come from.
It said it recently met the human resources management of the Health Division and no mention was made of converting Boffa Hospital into a general hospital by the end of this year. The conversion of Boffa Hospital was not even included in the manpower capacity-building plan of the Health Division.
The union said that even if all 160 nursing students were to pass their final examinations this year that would be not enough to fill the 300+ vacancies already existing in various government hospitals.
FOREIGN NURSES NOT EVEN FLUENT IN ENGLISH
The MUMN said the country could not keep relying on the recruitment of foreign nurses especially when a substantial number of them "caused severe distress to the existing Maltese nurses and to the patients' because they were not fluent in either English or Maltese."
"It is already a horrible experience for a patient being cared for in a corridor but then it becomes even worse for such patient having a nurse not understanding his needs and pains."
While other countries (such as the UK) are requesting certain high academic qualifications in the English language to safeguard patient safety, the Health Division (in Malta) resorted to just ten/fifteen minute interview to evaluate the English skills of foreign nurses," the MUMN said.
"While MUMN is aware of the shortage of beds in MDH, beds have to have nurses since patients are human beings needing professional care provided only by nurses. So this is not just an issue of shortage of beds but also of nurses.
"A sensitive area such as the Health Sector cannot be used for political stunts on the media taking both the union and the Health Division by surprise with no consultation on both the logistics and human resources," the union added.