Updated 4.55pm with MUMN reaction
Doctors are renouncing responsibility for the effects of nurses' industrial action which their union claims is clogging the well-oiled emergency system, resulting in longer waiting times, blocked beds and unattended patients.
In a judicial protest filed on Monday, they insisted they were not to be held responsible if anything happened to patients between the time they are admitted to Mater Dei Hospital, and the time they are transferred to the wards.
The Medical Association of Malta filed the protest against the Health Ministry's Permanent Secretary, expressing “serious concerns” about the consequences of industrial action which they said was ordered by another union covering another sector of health professionals.
The association was referring to directives issued by the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses whereby patients are not being admitted to wards unless they had in hand patients' entire history, referred to as the “old notes”.
Until these notes are retrieved, patients are left in a corridor without any assistance.
MUMN ordered the directives over the past few weeks when the staffing problem at the state hospital took a turn for the worse. In internal communication, it told its members that the fact that old notes were not being sent with patients admitted to the wards was causing “havoc” and despite talks with the hospital management, no improvement was registered.
The doctors’ union told Times of Malta this was clogging the emergency department and may have serious consequences on the health of patients admitted to Mater Dei, in particular those admitted to the Emergency Department.
“The association makes it clear that the medical professionals it represents are exempt from liability for any consequences resulting directly or indirectly from any variation, delay or even non-compliance with the instructions given by doctors in the performance of their duties and to changes in the medical procedures used to date in the Mater Dei Hospital,“ MAM wrote in its judicial protest signed by lawyer Karl Briffa.
It also called on the Permanent Secretary to ensure that doctors’ instructions are executed by those who are duty-bound to execute them in time, holding him responsible for damages in default.
Nurses blame hospital management for state of affairs
Reacting, the nurses' union explained that it was the Mater Dei management that insisted that all patients admitted through the Emergency Department are to have old notes.
It said the management recently deployed carers in Emergency specifically to bring the required files.
"Therefore, if there is clogging in the Emergency Department, it is due to Mater Dei instructions," it said, adding that there was "chaos" in the filing system.
"So instead of MAM shooting from the hip, it would have been better to check the facts. An important point is that surgeons are refusing to operate on patients without these old notes," it added.