Nurses and midwives are no longer entitled to additional sick leave if they contract COVID while tending to patients, even though a rise in virus cases is expected this winter.
Up until last week, medical staff were granted special sick leave when contracting COVID at work, the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses told Times of Malta. Now, any type of sick leave claims will be deducted from their yearly allowance.
In an appeal to the health authorities, the MUMN said nurses and midwives were at the frontline when dealing with patients and having no special sick leave on which to rely was unfair.
The impact of the COVID virus, including its psychological effect, was greater than that of the common flu, the union added.
“Now that COVID cases are again on the increase, we do not want nurses to feel abandoned by their employer, become disheartened and take sick leave as a result of increased anxiety,” the union told the health authorities, adding that this could lead to lack of nurses and midwives in wards hosting COVID patients.
In correspondence seen by Times of Malta, the union was told that Malta had lifted its quarantine measures for contacts of cases on May 3 and, “naturally”, any related and specific arrangements were “consequentially rendered inapplicable”.
The MUMN was also asked to alert the ministry to any instances where nurses caring for COVID-19-positive patients were not provided with protective wear.
"While physical injury on duty was still recognised, infective cases such as COVID could be 'more devastating on the body than physical harm'"
Last month, Health Minister Chris Fearne said that, while COVID-19 was now endemic, the authorities were expecting a rise in cases this winter.
A vaccine booster for a new variant of the virus, along with a vaccine against the common flu, is already being offered from health centres and community clinics ahead of the influenza season.
A spokesperson for MUMN told Times of Malta that nurses were already seeing a substantial increase in inpatients with COVID.
He added that MUMN will be taking its appeal to the office of the prime minister and the office of the principal permanent secretary because, while physical injury on duty was still recognised, infective cases such as COVID could be “more devastating on the body than physical harm”.