MUMN accuses health minister of ‘imposing’ personal agenda

In the umpteenth statement issued in recent weeks, the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN) once again criticised health minister Godfrey Farrugia  and his handling of the migration of the oncology hospital from Floriana to Mater Dei.

While insisting that MUMN agreed that all hospitals should be "patient focused," union boss Paul Pace insisted that the minister's "directions" contradicted the concept. Moreover, the union has issued directives for the nurses working in Boffa Hospital in Floriana.

Describing the minister's claims of consulting and involving all stakeholders in the decision making process at Mater Dei Hospital as the "biggest joke of the century," MUMN said the proposed Strategic Business Unit (SBU) is up and running without the union's agreement.

"It is clear that the health minister Godfrey Farrugia defeats repeatedly the message of the Government that 'Listens'. While the Prime Minister has been loyal to the people on such an aspect, his health minister repeatedly defeated such electoral promise. Meetings organised by the health minister were always intended not as a consultation process with MUMN but purely as an imposition of his set agenda at the detriment not only of the nurses and midwives but also of the patients," Pace said.

The union president added that a case in point was Farrugia's proposal of a Strategic Business Unit (SBU) intended to be some new management in Mater Dei Hospital which would also include the new oncology hospital.

"The health minister never bothered to request the slightest opinion on the Strategic Business Unit (SBU) from the nursing and midwifery management, neither from the nurses or the midwives working in Mater Dei Hospital or Boffa Hospital let along from MUMN but then expects MUMN to just bow its head and agree to every word his henchman the consultants and himself decided," Pace added.  

He said the union cannot remotely understand how Farrugia reached a decision to give the medical consultants, who are clinical doctors, administrative roles in the day-to-day running of their department "especially when certain clinical consultants have a conflict of interest due to their private practice."

Farrugia, the union president said, is surrounded by a small number of medical consultants who act as his personal advisors and this explains why "bizarre decisions" such as the erection of a tent outside the day care unit at Mater Dei Hospital in January.

The Strategic Business Unit, as being proposed by Farrugia, will also have a negative effect on Boffa Hospital, Pace insisted, adding that it would place the management of a well-run place under Mater Dei's management.

To date, Boffa Hospital has been administered autonomously which MUMN said resulted in a "smooth running" hospital with nurses proud of excellent service provided.

"This autonomy is literally being shattered by the minister's Strategic Business Unit whose head is in the sand and refuses to listen. Again just imposition," Pace said.

A meeting which was summoned on Sunday by Farrugia was "only meant to explain the SBU," Pace said, adding that his union "refused such a meeting since this is the type of imposition and arrogance being used with MUMN."

Moreover, Pace said that backed by the nurses working in Boffa Hospital, MUMN issued the first series of directives to all nurses working in the oncology centre  including the nursing management with immediate effect.

These directives include orders to the staff to refrain from attending meetings or contribute to the migration of the new oncology hospital and boycott any administrative instructions from the clinical consultants. Additionally, nurses including management will not be involved in the migration when the patients are transferred to the new oncology hospital at Mater Dei.