Industrial action averted

Industrial action by nurses was averted at the last minute when a decision to increase the number of care workers at Mater Dei Hospital was endorsed by the authorities.

The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses was on the verge of issuing directives to its members, which would have kicked off next week.

However, the Contracts Department yesterday approved a request by the new hospital's authorities to acquire the services of 150 care workers from a contractor, a spokesman for Mater Dei Hospital confirmed.

"The deployment plan is underway and they are expected to start working in the coming days," he said.

Contacted yesterday, union president Paul Pace said the care workers had been promised prior to the migration to the new hospital but, almost three months later, the move had not yet started.

Nurses were feeling the pressure of a shortage in support staff, especially because they too were short staffed. Care workers support nursing staff in their duties. About 120 more nurses are needed in Mater Dei alone and only a maximum of 60 would be graduating this year. "We were about to resort to industrial action today," Mr Pace said.

He said that although the new hospital might be more appealing for patients, it has tripled the work for nurses. "Sometimes we joke that mattresses are not even allowed to cool down between the time a patient is discharged and another is admitted," he said.

Last year, the Health Division had said it would be making an extra effort to recruit nurses from other EU countries to make up for the shortage of nurses. But Mr Pace said only some 50 nurses from Bulgaria and Romania had applied and it could not be ascertained whether they had a good command of English. The Health Division had insisted the applicants had to be English-speaking.