MUMN lambasts police after nurses are charged in court over patients with psychiatric conditions
The Malta Union of Midwives & Nurses has lambasted the Police Force and expressed shock that “for the second time nurses are being taken to court on issues beyond their responsibilities.”
The union said that the cases centre around patients who due to their serious psychiatric condition, require one to one nursing attention (ordered by the doctors as part of their treatment).
These patients, it said, are being left unattended since no additional staff is send to the wards by their respective hospital management who in turn are themselves facing extreme shortage of nurses.
“Every day, more than 70 patients in Mater Dei Hospital (MDH) and another 65 patients in Mount Carmel Hospital (MCH) require one to one nursing care due to their mental or medical condition,” the MUMN explained in a statement on Monday morning.
“Nurses on the wards request additional staff for such constant watches, but hospital management refuse the plea of the nurses on several occasions due to the fact that no nurses would be available,” it continued.
The union 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 compliment, are taken to court by police inspectors if something occurs to the patient irrespective if there are nurses available or not,” the union said.
“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 for such short comings,” it continued.
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 Health Minister was requested by MUMN to defend the nurses since the shortage of nurses is not their fault, but, the union said, the Health Minister failed to inform the police on 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 (when constant watches are not provided) is not due to nurses’/midwives’ negligence but due to 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.
Although the incident in question took place in 2017, the issue of the additional staff needed for constant watches is present till this very day since the Health Ministry failed to address such an issue, the MUMN said.
“Constant watches were always a time bomb, waiting to explode with severe consequences both to the nurses and to the patients,” it continued.
“This is the second nurse to be taken to court since the police inspectors always accuse the nurses and not the politicians or the office of the permanent secretary. The small fish is easily attacked so the big fish are never to blame.”