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Workers demand State doctors get a taste of the medicine

Hospital staff have accused the authorities of using two weights and two measures when supervising inspections aimed at rooting out workers abusing the system.

Last month it was revealed that 27 hospital staff turned up late for work at Mount Carmel hospital, when two inspections were carried out by the health division inspectorate unit.

High-ranking sources at Malta’s psychiatric hospital told

MaltaToday that an order had been issued from the top for the inspectorate staff not to include the doctors in their examinations.

"This is a perfect case of two weights and two measures," the sources said.
The news that inspectors found a number of staff absent or late during the inspections carried out at Mount Carmel was leaked to and reported in The Times on 10 November.

Sources told MaltaToday that they were not protesting about the inspections, although they described the results which found their way into the paper as "exaggerated", rather that the way they were being carried out was "selective".

"We have it from a highly reliable source that the inspectors have been told not to include doctors in this exercise and so far it is nurses and other workers that have been targeted," they said. "We would like to know what is behind this decision, since doctors, like everyone else, are sometimes late, or pop out to run an errand.

"If this inspectorate is to have any credibility, let’s at least see a blanket undertaking of its duties, rather than a witch-hunt on certain sectors of workers."

MaltaToday asked the Health minister, Louis Deguara, for his reaction to the complaints, but no reply was received at time of going to press.