Nurses' union lifts directives

A protest which the Malta Union of Nurses and Midwives planned to hold today was suspended following a meeting with Health Minister Louis Deguara yesterday.

The meeting, over the issue of the employment of newly qualified nurses, was described by the union as "positive".

Union general secretary Colin Galea said an agreement had been reached regarding the employment of new nurses, as well as the understaffing of the medical wards at St Luke's Hospital.

The Health Division, he said, was committed to finalising an exercise to determine the number of vacancies in public hospitals by Monday.

Mr Galea said it was also agreed that, next year, the same exercise would be carried out before the nurses graduated and not, as was the case this year, afterwards.

He said there were "very good" indications that all the graduated nurses, almost 100, would be employed.

Another meeting with the union is expected to be held on Tuesday, immediately after the Health Division's conclusion of the exercise, to explain the situation, Mr Galea said.

As a result of yesterday's meeting, the union's directives, which included work to rule, have been suspended and the protest outside Castille, in Valletta, has been changed to a meeting at the MUMN offices in St Luke's Hospital at 10 a.m. in order to explain the developments.

Expressing his satisfaction at the outcome of the talks, Mr Galea said it was a case of "killing two birds with one stone" in that, as a result of the employment of the new nurses, the issue of the overcrowded medical wards would also be tackled and resolved.

A previous agreement, dating back to 1999 and stating that the medical wards should be manned by six nurses, would now be honoured, he said. As it was, the shortage of staff led to a mere 50 per cent output, meaning that both patients and nurses were suffering, Mr Galea explained.

The Health Division would now be employing the new nurses, who would be allocated to these wards - six each day in accordance with the previous agreement.

The issue of the newly qualified nurses erupted when the government decided to employ them depending on exigencies rather according to the number of graduates.