Nurses at Mater Dei Hospital’s main operating theatre will not participate in medical interventions in cases of staff shortages, this newspaper has learnt.
The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses’ directive started this morning and applies to some 190 scrub and anaesthetic nurses, deputy charge nurses, charge nurses and practice nurses.
A list of 10 directives was circulated among nurses following a meeting on burnout and safe practices with the director of nursing services and nursing managers.
According to the letter, which has been seen by Times of Malta, it was agreed that the list of operations should depend on the number of available nurses, and not the other way round.
This was causing havoc and a crisis situation
In the letter, the MUMN says it could no longer accept a situation where despite the number of available nurses, the list of operations stayed mostly the same. This was causing havoc and a crisis situation, the union said.
When contacted, MUMN general secretary Colin Galea said the directives were aimed at increasing patients’ and nurses’ safety.
“It is very true that certain waiting lists have gone down but at the expense of the nurses’ wellbeing because there is shortage of nurses even at the theatres,” he said.
Nurses are being ordered not to participate in any operation or similar intervention unless the nurses present at the theatre conforms to officially stipulated numbers.
Also, if there are not at least six main operating theatre (MOT) anaesthetic nurses in the main recovery area and, at least, another four in the day care recovery area, anaesthetic nurses will keep the patient in the theatre until there is the correct number.
The same will happen in the case of paediatric operations where the patient to nurse ratio should be 1:1 in recovery areas.
Anaesthetic nurses participating in the operation will keep the patient in the theatre until the correct number of MOT anaesthetic nurses is present in the recovery areas. The action comes less than two weeks after the MUMN suspended nationwide directives to members following a meeting with the health authorities regarding various issues, including early retirement, allowances and an adequate salary for some grades.
The union and the government have been meeting daily over the past two weeks on a new agreement. The MUMN is expecting the government to submit “positive” proposals within a week so the talks can be concluded.