We often hear the saying “first impressions are the ones that really count”. Indeed, from the very first meetings between the Malta Union for Midwives and Nurses and Steward Health Care, it was evident that the organisation was very reluctant to maintain and invest in the services and medical facilities handed down to it by the Maltese government.
This lack of initiative is quite evident since no new hospital is being built in Gozo, Karin Grech Hospital is not being refurbished, no new building is being built in the St Luke’s Hospital area, no upgrading of the new medical school is being undertaken to set up a new nursing campus and no refurbishment or upgrading is being done to the very old physiotherapy department.
These are all projects that Steward Health Care had been assigned, but which have all failed miserably.
MUMN chose the path of caution with Steward Health Care.
The union decided that, from the list of projects Steward had committed to deliver to the Maltese public, it would, for the time being, focus on the refurbishment of the old physiotherapy department at St Luke’s since no investment had been made there for the last 15 years.
Despite this, Steward Health Care did not have the slightest intention of investing in this department, even though the Maltese government had entrusted it with this vital service.
This department is the main physiotherapy department on the island, being used by 75,000 clients a year; sadly, it resembles more a museum than a physiotherapy department.
When timelines were finally provided for the refurbishment of the physiotherapy department, Steward Health Care boasted that, by August 2019, a foreign contractor would be engaged who would blitz the place to the ground and that, by October 31, 2019, Maltese patients could start making use of the state-of-the-art facilities and services the new physiotherapy department would have to offer.
Such timelines were even presented to the Health Minister himself, upon which MUMN suspended all industrial actions.
Unfortunately, the reality of the situation and the failure of Steward Health Care came back to haunt us.
The failure of Steward Health Care to complete one, simple project makes one wonder about its true intentions
Steward Health Care failed so drastically in delivering a project as simple as the refurbishment of the physiotherapy department that MUMN, with great distress and great dismay, had to embark on another industrial action crusade.
Steward Health Care failed to start this project in August and did not provide sufficient workers to be in a position to cause the famous blitz in the physiotherapy department it had promised.
The insensitivity shown by Steward Health Care makes one wonder if this is a reliable partner to trust with such sensitive matters as medical care.
Is Steward Health Care – which has already been in Malta for the past two years with no visible investment in medical care – to be considered the main strategic partner in this sector, especially when this is a partner whose timelines are never maintained and who is insensitive to the suffering of Maltese patients?
The failure of Steward Health Care to complete one, simple project – as was the refurbishment of the physiotherapy department – makes one wonder about its true intentions.
Until now, Steward Health Care has been a complete failure in the delivery of any service, let alone investing in the medical facilities of any hospital entrusted to it by the Maltese government.
It is time for the government to apply the necessary pressure and make Steward Health Care responsible for the commitments it made to Maltese patients.
If such failures persist, then the ultimate question is to be asked: is it worth having a strategic partner in medical care whose timelines and indifference are causing this much suffering for Maltese patients?
If Steward Health Care is taking the government for a ride, rest assured it will surely not do the same with MUMN.
Paul Pace is the president of the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses.