[WATCH] Poor working conditions leading to exodus of nurses and midwives

The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN) said that poor working conditions were leading to an exodus of nurses and midwives, with many abandoning the profession and choosing alternative careers.

On the occasion of the International Day of Nurses and Midwives, MUMN said the government was not properly addressing the shortage of professionals in the sector.

MUMN President Paul Pace said many nurses were choosing to either become doctors, get into the iGaming sector or work outside of the country. He said the national health service of the UK was also “poaching” Maltese nurses due to their fluency in the English language.

“There is a shortage of 600 nurses in this country, which was never tackled by the government. The solution offered by the Health Ministry was to issue a call for third country nationals and poach them from the private sector,” Pace said.

He claimed that the nurses’ shortage at the public hospitals meant that certain wards were operating with one or two nurses per ward instead of four. Pace added that certain wards could not be opened at Mater Dei and that an average of 150 beds at St Vincent De Paul were not being utilised.

He said that the working week of nurses was of 46 hours and that in order for a nurse to take vacation leave, one had to get a colleague working overtime to cover for him/her.

MUMN proposed that student nurses receive a minimum wage instead of a stipend and then commit themselves to three years’ work in the public service, in a bid to attract more youths to the profession.

Pace said the union made proposals to the government that focused on attracting back the nurses that had left the job.

MUMN General Secretary Colin Galea said the government was showing a lack of courage in addressing the issue. He said that the union decided to hold the annual conference at their premises instead of the Health Ministry for the first time.

“Last year we launched a mental health wellbeing programme. We did our part but the government didn’t and it seems like it doesn’t care. It is useless making promises prior to the election and then never deliver,” Galea said.

Galea and Pace touched upon the case involving Joseph Pace, the nurse manager who is potentially facing a prison sentence over a 2017 incident where a patient harmed himself. The patient in Mount Carmel Hospital had been ordered by doctors to have Level 1 supervision but due to shortages, staff were unable to intervene and assist a patient from self-harming.

“It hurts that we are then sometimes treated as criminals. We might come across as vociferous as we are not appreciated despite all that we do. Nurses and midwives are the once that run the hospitals, they are they backbone of every service,” Pace said.

Galea said that the case was mishandled to the point that the police inspector had called up the nurse to identify the patient at the morgue, even though he had survived. He questioned why the magistrate had not called up the nurse prior to the police interrogations.