Updated at 3pm, adds Steward's reply

Steward Health Care has again asked for more time to come up with upgrade plans at the physiotherapy department despite union directives barring new patients from being treated.

The directives were issued by the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses last month after Steward failed to provide time frames, as had been agreed, on upgrade works at the department.

Physiotherapists at St Luke’s Hospital are struggling to treat their patients as a result of the sub-standard facilities there.

Union president Paul Pace said the MUMN was asked by Steward to provide certain documents to assist it with understanding the situation at the run-down clinic. 

Although the requested material was submitted, the operators insisted they would get back to the union in three weeks’ time, he said.

“It’s surreal how weeks after the coming into force of directives that are among the harshest we have ever had to resort to, Steward are still saying they need more time,” Mr Pace said. 

“This when they have been promising the so-called master plan since they came to Malta a year and a half ago.”

He admitted that, notwithstanding the pressure through the directives, nothing had changed yet. 

The union, he added, had considered stepping up action but had decided to hold back not to further impact patients. Mr Pace remarked that physiotherapists had little hope the plans would be presented any time soon given the fact they had been “taken for a ride for months on end”.

“The physiotherapists have often asked when the upgrade would take place and every single time they were told it would be soon, yet, they are still working in a department that is falling apart,” Mr Pace said.

Times of Malta reported in April that physiotherapists at the department situated in St Luke’s Hospital were struggling to treat their patients as a result of the sub-standard facilities there. 

According to the physiotherapists, the state of the department was also making it difficult for them to provide patients with the latest treatment available in other countries.

Mr Pace said the decision by Steward to ask for more time had further demotivated the physiotherapists who, he noted, felt their work was not valued.

A spokeswoman for Steward Health Care told this newspaper the operator wanted to “dedicate enough time to planning in order to get it right”.

When pressed to provide an indication of when the plans for the upgrades will be provided, she said this would be “within a few weeks or months” but gave no fixed date.

Steward's reply

Steward Health Care Malta said on Saturday it had been in constant contact with the union and government to define the most appropriate interim solution which safeguarded patients interests, and gave staff suitable infrastructure to work in.

It responded to the union’s submission of required documentation within 48 hours and gave a firm timeline for infrastructure improvement with a commitment to completion in October.

Steward said it strongly believed that the measures taken so far provided the union with sufficient commitment and comfort that the situation would improve imminently. 

It also believed that maintaining directives in spite of a good plan forward only exposed patients to negative outcomes, making them an innocent and unnecessary hostage of this situation.

Steward Malta would continue to work in good faith to ensure the improvement plan communicated materialised and that patient care was improved.