Prime Minister Robert Abela has pointed to a new collective agreement for nurses as a key part of the government's plan to fix a staffing crisis in the profession. 

Abela said the government had agreed to salary increases as part of that deal because it wants to entice graduates to opt for a career within the healthcare profession.   

“The increases we gave were not haphazard [ones]," he said, acknowledging that nurses are in short supply. "We decided that to incentivise more students to enter the nursing course, we needed to provide better working conditions and pay."

Nurses now say they are fairly paid, Abela added. 

The prime minister was reacting to a Times of Malta article which revealed that the number of graduate nurses last year was the lowest in a decade. 

University of Malta data shows that only 83 students qualified in the much-needed profession in 2023. In 2022, 149 new nurses graduated.  

Fewer than half of the new graduates moved on to work with the government, where there is a chronic staff shortage. About 20 went on to study medicine.

The collective agreement which Abela was referring to was signed in September and impacts nurses, midwives and ESG technicians. 

Neither the government nor the nurses' union has published details of the deal, though Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses president Paul Pace has said pay would increase by between €4,000 and €6,000 annually under the new sectoral agreement.