The Gozo Ministry has issued an internal call to directly employ nurses currently working at the hospital with the intent of deploying them with the elderly when the government has no such homes on the island.

In a circular it issued towards the end of the year, the ministry said it was seeking to employ nurses currently working at the Gozo General Hospital on a one-year posting, with the possibility that the contract be extended. 

A ministry spokesman said when contacted that the nurses were going to be employed with the ministry to be deployed with the elderly. But sources said the government did not have even one home for the elderly on the island although one is being built in association with the church. Once completed, however, it would be given to a private company to run as a private-public partnership. 

The other homes for the elderly in Gozo are owned by the Church, which has five.

Sources close to the Gozo Hospital said that many nurses were fed up with the situation at the hospital and wanted to leave.

A substantial number of them approached the ministry asking for a move elsewhere but were told to apply to be transferred to Mater Dei Hospital. 

However, the majority refused to work in Malta so the ministry issued an expression of interest to employ them directly. 

According to the document, the expression of interest was seeking to employ “Staff Nurses within the Gozo General Hospital to carry out duties at the Ministry for Gozo”. 

This, it said, was in line withthe concept of job mobility, enhancing the learning experience of the individual while at the same time addressing the exigencies of the public service. 

Selected candidates will continue to benefit from the current basic salary step and scale, the nursing premium, the continuous professional development allowance as well as the qualification allowance. 

They will have to work a 40-hour, five- or six-day week excluding Sundays and public holidays. 

The duties will include “being an active member of the interdisciplinary professional team and work in collaboration with all health care professionals in the respective context to ensure a seamless service within the respective field”.

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