Emergency and mental health nurses are threatening industrial action unless they are insured against injuries at work, following an incident where a nurse was pushed down the stairs by a patient’s relative.

The relative allegedly shoved and assaulted the nurse. A source with knowledge of the case claimed the aggressor also hit another emergency responder who came to the nurse's aid and then chased them down the road while waving a barbecue fork.  

The nurses' union has now warned that if it does not receive official document of the insurance policy for nurses working at the Emergency and Accident Department and Mental Health services by Friday, it will not provide assistance to the least urgent cases.

Assaults on nurses at the emergency department are not uncommon, according to the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, with the latest incident taking place on Friday.

Pushed, hit and abused

A female nurse attending an ambulance call was, “without warning and provocation, physically manhandled down several steps” as she approached a patient. 

According to a source, an Emergency Aid Responder who rushed to the nurse’s aid received several blows to his face.

The nurse was immediately provided shelter by a neighbour within the same apartment block, however, she was assaulted again by the relative after she managed to retrieve the patient together with her colleague.

The source told Times of Malta that the perpetrator, together with his partner, threw the contents of the emergency pre-hospital bag at the EAR from the third-floor balcony, hurling verbal abuse and threatening the first-aiders with murder.

The perpetrator continued verbally abusing the responders and striking the EAR repeatedly while the nurse secured the patient on the stretcher, took them to the ambulance and applied oxygen, the source said.

The perpetrator eventually chased the two down the road with a barbecue fork, the source added. 

The responders issued a police report and were assessed by medical officers and psychologists at Mater Dei Hospital, as they were traumatised by the experience, Times of Malta was told.

MUMN strongly deplored the incident and called on the police to arrest the perpetrators and bring them to justice. 

Nurses at the emergency department, who are the first line of contact for hospital care should be protected, it said, also calling on the health authorities to deplore such incidents.

MUMN wants insurance

For months, the MUMN has been calling for an insurance policy similar to the one granted to Civil Protection Workers and Prison Wardens.

Although the MUMN and the Health Department had reached an agreement that would cover emergency and mental health nurses, such an insurance policy has still not been issued, it said in a statement.

The union has set November 8 as a deadline.

Directives will then be issued, ordering emergency nurses to cease services to patients who, after being assessed, would have been allocated a lower priority than high-risk emergencies.

This means that those at risk of dying or those at high risk, such as people suffering heart attacks or stroke, would be seen to.

Such patients are considered as priority one or two patients.

Others, who are considered priority three to five patients, including those with a head or tummy ache, or those suffering a fracture or laceration among others, will not be assisted by nurses while they wait to be seen to by a doctor or a specialist.

If matters escalate further, nurses will only operate from the area which hosts only those at the highest risk.

Nurses will also be ordered to ask ambulance drivers not to exceed the speed driving limits due to health and safety reasons.