The health sector is not being prepared for the increased demand caused by the influx of foreign workers, the Nationalist Party warned on Monday.
Shadow minister Stephen Spiteri and PN candidate Herman Farrugia told a press conference that a shortage of nurses was already straining the sector.
On Thursday, nurses and midwives are set to take industrial action ordered by the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses following a breakdown of negotiations on a new sectoral agreement.
Among other actions, nurses will not participate in the washing of patients except for those that cannot be bed bathed by the support staff and they will not transfer patients going for elective operations to any theatres, endoscopy rooms or suites, except mothers scheduled for a caesarean section.
The shortage of nurses has resulted in postponed or cancelled operations. At the ITU, one nurse is assigned to two or three patients, the PN officials observed.
Dr Spiteri referred to media reports that cancelled operations numbered 15 a week. He said that some nurses also had to work around 15 hours overtime a week to keep up with the backlog, and consequently suffered burnout.
Nurses worked in a delicate environment that required them to be alert all the time, he said.
The absence of long-term planning for the health sector was not attracting enough nursing students, Dr Spiteri added.
Dr Farrugia noted that the lack of motivation to enrol in this vocational sector was evident at the nursing school. Students could not be attracted to a profession that did not provide fulfilment, he said.
He also noted that while the government planned on importing foreign workers in the coming years, it did not seem to have planned for the added pressure on the primary health services, which will require the engagement of additional nurses.
LABOUR: PN CREATED THIS PROBLEM
In a reaction, the Labour Party said it had become customary of the PN to attack the government on the basis of some newspaper report.
However, the shortage of nurses was actually the result of a lack of planning by PN governments, something which the present government has been working to resolve.
It was the former PN government which created this problem when it limited the intake of nursing students, a policy which had since been changed.
Furthermore, under the present government, a second nursing school had been opened jointly with Steward Healthcare and Mcast.
The PL also noted that the PN was not making any new proposals.