Patients feel pinch of nurses' action

Directives given to nurses at St Luke's Hospital's emergency department could be withdrawn if the government "shows a commitment" to accept the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses' claims, union general secretary Colin Galea said.

Nurses at the department yesterday started following work-to-rule directives and the union has threatened to escalate its action on Wednesday unless a solution is found.

Contacted by The Times, the hospital's human resources and administration director Mark Scicluna said the effect of the nurses' actions was felt by the patients. Nurses at times accompany patients who are in an unstable condition and who need to have an X-Ray or a CT-Scan and so other people had to be found to do this yesterday.

The union's dispute revolves mainly around security at the department, which, it is claiming, is inadequate. The union has made it clear it has lost trust in the security system and is now insisting that security is provided by a private firm.

"We have been saying that we are not happy with the system for two years," Mr Galea told The Times.

Mr Scicluna said the issue was being discussed at a higher level, because the hospital already employed a number of security guards. About 160 security personnel are employed by the Health Division. The MUMN is also claiming that certain working systems are hindering nurses in their jobs and that there is a lack of guidelines in the emergency department.

Union representatives yesterday had an unofficial meeting with the hospital management but Mr Galea said the encounter yielded no concrete results.

Earlier this week Mr Galea said that unless solutions are found by next Wednesday the union would order nurses to stop triaging patients. He argued that the triage system - by which the most urgent cases are seen first - was not working.

Mr Scicluna said the triage guidelines had been revised, and the nurses only gave their feedback last Sunday. The aim was to have all the feedback by Wednesday and to finalise the guidelines by December 28.