Casualty nurses at Mater Dei Hospital have been instructed not to accompany ambulances required in the Mosta and Paola catchment areas between 6pm and 6.30pm.
The directive was issued by the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, as it felt that the industrial action ordered by the General Workers’ Union some time ago had resulted in more pressure on nurses serving in the hospital’s accident and emergency department.
When contacted, MUMN general secretary Colin Galea said the GWU, as it had every right to do, instructed emergency aid responders not to accompany ambulances deployed from Mosta and Paola polyclinics between 6pm and 7pm.
Since ambulances had to have paramedics on board, the health authorities resorted to deploying ambulances from Mater Dei, which were accompanied by emergency aid responders and a casualty nurse, during the hour affected by the GWU action.
The GWU directive increased the casualty nurses’ workload, so the MUMN felt it too had to take action to safeguard its members, numbering about 100, Mr Galea said.
The directive would be extended to 6.45pm if there were no nurses on the afternoon or evening shifts, he noted.
The union directives mean that ambulances leaving Mater Dei for emergencies in the Mosta and Paola areas now have to pick up a nurse from the polyclinics in the two localities before continuing on their way.
In the meantime, the MUMN said it had reached an agreement for an additional nine nurses at the accident and emergency department, starting this month. Still, this was not enough to ease the pressure that casualty nurses were facing, Mr Galea said.
Disputes and industrial action by doctors and pharmacists have been common over the past weeks.
Industrial action by public healthcare pharmacists was escalated last week following a breakdown in talks over a new sectoral agreement which have been going on since last June.
The doctors’ union council has voted, meanwhile, in favour of further and possibly harsher industrial action this week should negotiations with the government over the privatisation of three public hospitals fail.
The Medical Association of Malta said a strike by outpatient doctors last Tuesday had affected about 1,700 patients.