PN leader Bernard Grech on Thursday urged the government not to be 'hard-headed with workers as he backed the nurses' case in pay talks.

Speaking at a press conference outside Mater Dei Hospital, Grech said he hoped that negotiations would move forward and the issue would not impact patients.

The MUMN nurses' union on Wednesday paused industrial action which had caused the postponement of scores of surgical interventions, and said it would refer government proposals to a membership vote. 

“It's not enough to applaud nurses during a pandemic, we want all hospital workers to truly be appreciated all the time,” Grech said.  

If nurses deserve a salary increase, that needs to be given, he added. “It's not right that the government keeps being hardheaded with our workers.”  

People 'robbed of their health'  

Grech,  accompanied by PN health spokesperson Stephen Spiteri and former PN leader Adrian Delia, also spoke on the Vitals/Steward Healthcare controversy, saying fraud and mismanagement of the health sector meant that people had been “Robbed of their health”. 

“The healthcare system is under great pressure, almost at collapse,” Grech said, blaming a lack of long-term planning and investment. 

Some patients, he observed, had been waiting up to three years for an operation.  

There was also a shortage of medicines, including antibiotics.  

“The Labour government in the last 10 years was only been interested in handing money to Vitals and Steward and didn’t care about improving the (healthcare) service,” he said.    

The hospitals management contract to Vitals and Steward had “robbed the health of the Maltese people.” 

Prime Minister Rober Abela had continued to hand funds to Steward despite knowing that the concession agreement was “fraudulent” he said.