Reduced car park fee for hospital employees

Nurses, midwives and nursing aides at St Luke's Hospital will soon be able to save 10 cents every time they park at the Pieta' car park close to the hospital, Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, president Rudolph Cini said yesterday.

Employees at the hospital will pay a parking fee of 25 cents. There are about 1,800 employees at St Luke's who will benefit from the price reduction. The MUMN represents about 1,000 of these workers. The part of the park reserved for hospital workers can take about 250 cars.

Addressing a news conference outside St Luke's, Mr Cini said that following the intervention of Health Minister Louis Deguara, the union had entered into an agreement with Delta Pharmaceuticals to advertise its products in the car park.

Following a number of meetings between the MUMN, Pieta' council and Delta Pharmaceuticals, it was agreed that the advertising revenue would make up for a cut in the parking fee charged to employees of St Luke's hospital.

The cut in the parking fee was also made possible through the intervention of Nationalist MP Mario Galea who persuaded the Land Department to lower the annual rent it charges the local council by Lm5,000 to Lm25,000.

When asked whether this fee reduction would affect the charges that will shortly come into effect for members of the public, Mr Cini said that such an issue would have to be taken up by the consumers' department.

"It would be pertinent to point out that when the MUMN ordered a two-hour strike last April in protest against the 35 cents fee charged to hospital employees, the MUMN got a lot of flak from various sectors of society who argued that the union was making too much fuss about the fee.

"But now it seems that members of the public are going to be hit by higher fees and people are already calculating how much more expensive leaving their car at the Pieta' car park will be," Mr Cini said.