Updated 9.15pm with MASW's comments
Union directives to cease bathing the elderly are cruel and show “a serious ageist attitude” towards older people, the Maltese Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics said on Friday.
In a statement, it said it associated itself with the positions taken by the Health Commissioner in the Office of the Ombudsman, the dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and the Department of Gerontology and Dementia Studies at the University of Malta in condemning recent union directives in hospitals and residences that leave older persons in danger of dying from inadequate care.
Health Commissioner Charles Messina said last week elderly St Vincent de Paul Hospital were being left unwashed for days as a result of union directives.
He said patients were being used as "pawns" to pressure the authorities.
Earlier this week, he slammed further union directives as being an "attack on the most vulnerable" and said they "go against the dignity of the human being".
“This shockingly insensitive approach to leverage over health authorities by institutions representing the very people that exist to protect, care for and defend the most vulnerable simply beggars belief,” the association said.
It added that it is common knowledge that not mobilising older vulnerable persons out of bed would lead to complex medical complications that could be fatal.
The same eventual outcome may result without proper management of incontinence.
The elderly are the people who have already lived the past year in fear of death by COVID-19 and subject to loneliness and subsequent mental distress, the association said.
It added that it is “a mature society’s” responsibility to ensure that vulnerable people are offered the best possible means to enjoy life with dignity and success.
“We call on the relevant unions to revise their decisions and on the health authorities to find solutions to uphold the standards of care older persons deserve.”
Social workers join call for directives to stop
The Maltese Association of Social Workers has also expressed its concern.
In a statement late on Friday, the MASW said that while it understood that workers were entitled to fair and good conditions of work, "this should not come at the cost of putting at risk highly vulnerable people".
Elderly people, the association added, deserved the highest level of care and respect.
"MASW calls for common sense to prevail and for the directives to stop immediately.
"Let’s safeguard the dignity and wellbeing of the elderly people who have already suffered and sacrificed a lot in the past year due to the COVID-19
pandemic."