MUMN says it received complaints about foreign nurses employed at Gozo hospital
The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN) told The Malta Independent that it has received complaints from a number of Gozitan nurses that the recently recruited foreign nurses are not capable of carrying out their work.
MUMN President Paul Pace highlighted that this is not the fault of the nurses, but said that Steward Health Care did not have them undergo an induction course.
Last Friday, the MUMN issued a statement in which it expressed that it is not acceptable that the private hospital company Steward Health Care chose to employ foreign nurses at the Gozo General Hospital (GGH), when Gozitan nurses are working in Malta waiting to be transferred to GGH.
On Wednesday, Steward Health Care denied these claims saying:
“since March this year, Steward has been requesting repeatedly for the release of Gozitan nurses employed in Malta. To date, Steward has not received any communication from the Health Ministry to confirm that Gozitan nurses could be released to work at GGH.” Speaking to The Malta Independ
ent yesterday, MUMN President Paul Pace said that Steward cannot deny that they were not allowing Malta-based Gozitan nurses to work at the GGH when there are foreign workers who started working there last weekend.
“If there was something that is sacred in this country, it is the list that Gozitans have in terms of who is next in line to work at the GGH, with no political inclinations whatsoever. Steward broke the sanctity of that, as they brought foreign workers to replace possible Gozitan nurses who wanted to be transferred from Malta to Gozo,” he said.
It is here that Pace said that the union has already received a number of complaints from Gozitan nurses working at the GGH with the foreign nurses, saying that they are not capable of carrying out their work.
Just yesterday morning, he said, he received a hysterical phone call from one nurse in Gozo saying that they do not want to work with the foreigners again and that it would have been better if they were working without them as they have no idea what to do.
Pace explained that hospital work relies on teamwork, so if someone does not carry their weight, another nurse has to double the work.
He added that it is not really the nurse’s fault for lacking in performance as, usually, new recruits go through an induction course, but Steward just employed the foreign workers without putting them through this course.
On Tuesday, Steward Health Care told the ministry that it would consider withdrawing all legal proceedings in relation to the injunction immediately, subject to an agreement being reached with the Ministry for Health and MUMN.
These include that the ministry releases 10 nurses from the Gozo list, which is the equivalent number of third country national nurses Steward had to engage.
The 10 nurses referred to would be over and above the 8 nurses currently earmarked for replacement purposes.
In the interim, the current Third Country Nationals (TCNs) already recruited by Steward Healthcare shall remain at the Gozo General Hospital until the 18 nurses referred to above have been released to GGH. Thereafter, said TCNs will be transferred to Karin Grech Rehabilitation Hospital, Steward said.
It also called on the MUMN to withdraw all directives with immediate effect.
Steward said in the letter that MUMN’s position, which came as a “complete surprise,” jeopardizes those goals without any workable or constructive solutions being proposed.