MUMN takes aim at police over negligence charges against nurses despite serious staff shortages

The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses has criticised the police and expressed shock that for the second time, “nurses are being taken to court on issues beyond their responsibilities.”

In a statement on Monday, the union said that the cases centre around patients who, due to their serious psychiatric conditions, require one to one nursing attention.

The union said these patients are being left unattended since no additional staff is being sent to the wards by hospital management, which is facing an extreme shortage of nurses.

“Every day, more than 70 patients in Mater Dei Hospital and another 65 patients in Mount Carmel Hospital require one to one nursing care due to their mental or medical condition,” the MUMN said.

The union said nurses on the wards had requested additional staff for such constant watches, but hospital management has refused the plea on several occasions due to the fact that no nurses are available.

The MUMN said that although there are written agreements between the MUMN and Mater Dei management and Mount Carmel management that all constant watches require additional nurses or carers, such requests are often not respected.

“To add insult to injury, nurses and midwives on all levels, being management or part of the staff complement, are taken to court by police inspectors if something occurs to the patient irrespective if there are nurses available or not,” the union said.

The union said that nurses and midwives are paying the highest price since the police inspectors are too afraid to accuse the Health Ministry or the office of the Permanent Secretary of such shortcomings.

The MUMN said that when nurses and hospital management were being interrogated way back in 2019, it had issued a press release on such an injustice.

The union said that MUMN requested the Health Minister defend the nurses since the shortage of nurses is not their fault, but the ministry failed to inform the police about the current nursing shortage, and an innocent nurse is once again being wrongly accused. 

“The same nurse being accused of criminal misconduct is the nurse who saved the patient's life,” the MUMN said.

The union said that it should have been the duty of the Health Minister to inform the Police Commissioner that any consequences to the patient are not due to nurses’ and or midwives’ negligence but due to a lack of nursing staff.

“It is clear that both the Health Minister and the Health Department failed to defend the innocent nurses,” the MUMN said.

The union said that while the incident in question took place in 2017, the issue of the additional staff needed for constant watches is present to this very day, the MUMN said.

“This is the second nurse to be taken to court since the police inspectors always accuse the nurses and not the politicians or the permanent secretary's office. The small fish is easily attacked, so the big fish are never to blame,” the union said.