Nurse requests colleague be struck off over lack of qualifications

A Maltese nurse with five decades of experience in the profession has filed court proceedings in a bid to revoke the Maltese nursing licence granted to a Filipino national who he says, did not have all the qualifications required under the Nursing Act.

This emerges from a sworn application filed this morning in the First Hall of the Civil Court by Denis Tanti, against the Council of Nurses and Midwives, the Health Minister and the Filipino woman, in which he is calling on the court to revoke her nursing licence and order that her name be struck off the list of registered nurses.

In the application, signed by lawyer Ann Marie Mangion, Tanti, who has been registered in Malta as a nurse for 50 years, claims that although the woman had obtained a BSc in nursing from De Los Santos College in Quezon City in 2007, she had subsequently failed the examination required to practise nursing in the Philippines.

Excerpts from the law regulating nursing in the Philippines that Tanti attached to the sworn application, state that practising the profession without passing the written exam and obtaining the licence was punishable by a hefty fine or imprisonment for up to six years.

The Filipino woman’s name was inscribed in the Nurses Register for Malta in spite of this, and she was granted a licence to work as a nurse in the Maltese Islands.

Tanti argued that this is a breach of the Health Professions Act which could have a detrimental effect on the public’s trust in the nursing profession. He called upon the court to order that the woman's name be struck off the register and the revocation of her licence.