Physiotherapists across the healthcare system have resorted to industrial action after promised refurbishment works at Malta’s main physiotherapy department – situated at St Luke’s Hospital – failed to materialise.
Hundreds of patients a day are being affected after the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses stepped up the directives issued to all physiotherapists accusing Steward Health Care, the US company that runs the department, of dragging its feet.
“They had promised they would start refurbishments in August and complete the works by the end of October. However, we’re now two weeks into October and we haven’t seen any movement yet,” union president Paul Pace said.
“Now they are saying they’ll start in October but we’re not trusting them… we want to see signs of progress.”
A spokesman for Steward Health Care, however, told Times of Malta that the refurbishment works will start next week.
“Over the past months, the management at Steward Malta has been working with stakeholders to find the best solution to tackle the infrastructure issues at the physio department within St Luke’s,” he said.
Rehabilitation is about giving hope to patients. But how can we give hope when we ourselves don’t have hope?
“After extensive planning, we are pleased to announce that works will now start next week and aim to create the best possible space for our staff to provide high quality care to the patients we serve,” the spokesman added.
A physiotherapist, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions, said he was very demoralised with the situation that had been dragging on for over a decade.
“Rehabilitation is about giving hope to patients. But how can we give hope when we ourselves don’t have hope? We are being ignored. We work in a terrible environment without the equipment we need to do our job properly,” he said.
Run by Steward Health Care, which took over the 30-year government concession to manage three hospitals, the outpatient physiotherapy department at St Luke’s is the only one of its kind on the island, with a caseload of some 300 patients every day.
Physiotherapists complain they have long been struggling to treat their patients as a result of the sub-standard facilities.
The department has not seen an upgrade in years, with physiotherapists being forced to make the best of what is available, including having to use a corridor riddled with broken tiles during sessions with patients learning to walk again.
In May, the MUMN issued a directive, back then limited to the physiotherapy outpatients at St Luke’s, after Steward Health Care failed to provide timeframes, as had been agreed, on upgrade works at the department.
The directives were suspended in June after Steward Health Care provided a timeframe. It was meant to start works in August and complete them by the end of October.
But no works started and the union issued directives, this time more widespread to all healthcare services that include St Luke’s Hospital’s physiotherapy outpatients department, Mater Dei Hospital, Gozo General Hospital, Karin Grech Rehabilitation Hospital, St Vincent De Paul, Mount Carmel psychiatric hospital as well as other care homes, health centres as well as the Child Development and Assessment Unit (CDAU).
The nature of the directives varies across hospitals and include the following: physiotherapists at Mater Dei Hospital’s outpatients will not participate in follow-up sessions; at St Luke’s Hospital they will not see new referrals and at the CDAU they will not see new patients or long-term patients over the age of two.
Other directives include: not participating in discharge plans, not answering emails or pagers, no home visits and not offering training to relatives.