Nurses to be employed according to requirements

The government has decided to employ nurses within the public sector depending on exigencies rather than according to the number who graduate successfully, the Office of the Prime Minister said yesterday.

It said the Health Division was currently conducting a detailed exercise to identify the sectors where nurses were needed. Once this was done, the government would be in a position to employ the number of nurses required.

The government was commenting in the wake of a complaint by the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN) that the state had decided not to employ on a casual basis the nurses who successfully completed their studies. MUMN president Rudolph Cini told The Times the normal procedure practised over the last 15 years was for the nurses to be given temporary work in public hospitals and then apply for a full-time job.

Mr Cini said that when the nurses contacted the hospital authorities to find out when they would start working on a casual basis and where they would be working, they were told to register for work at the Employment and Training Corporation because they were not being given a job.

This, Mr Cini said, was happening despite the 146 vacancies that existed within public hospitals. About 90 nurses terminated their course successfully this year. Therefore, Mr Cini added, even if all the nurses who just completed their studies were to be allocated within public hospitals, this would not solve the nursing shortage problem. He stressed that because of this shortage nurses were having problems in claiming vacation leave.

The government said its role was not to guarantee nurses a job but rather to ensure that the health sector had the necessary human resources to guarantee an adequate level of care.

The union has requested an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi to discuss the decision, which, it said, was taken without consultation.

The MUMN said it could not understand how the government could have taken such a decision despite the "precarious situation" which public hospitals were in, with the level of care threatened because of lack of resources, overcrowding and extreme heat.

"This decision does not make sense, more so because we are looking at the opening of a new hospital which is supposed to offer excellent care," the union said.

It appealed to the government to revoke the decision, adding that if the meeting requested with the Prime Minister did not produce positive results, the union would have to take action to ensure that patient care was not threatened.

The government said the Prime Minister did not mind meeting with the union. It did add, however, that the MUMN should have verified the facts before resorting to unnecessary panic.