Nurses threaten industrial action over staff shortages at Karin Grech Hospital

The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN) has warned that it will tell staff at Karin Grech Hospital to refuse all new admissions unless the health authorities deploy more nurses. 

In a statement on Monday, the MUMN said that it would introduce the directives for its members on Tuesday unless more staff were sent to the rehabilitation hospital. 

"Karin Grech Hospital caters for highly dependent patients who require exhaustive nursing care. Having such a hospital with 45 nursing vacancies, the high burnout and huge stress on the few nursing staff in KGH to cope with the demands of the patients under their care is not acceptable in any Rehabilitation Hospital," the union said. 

The union said such low numbers had caused high levels of burnout and huge stress on the nursing staff at the facility.

“The Health Division has failed to replace the exodus of foreign nurses in KGH, which brought the whole hospital to an exceptionally higher level of crisis,” the MUMN said.