Paul Pace, the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses President, in a statement has said that the MUMN was “bombarded this morning by numerous calls from nurses working in Gozo General hospital when it was known the Health Division issued a statement [1] that.. Gozo is also prepared for the Ebola virus.”
He added that the “MUMN is informed that not only the hoods and the blowers are nonexistent in Gozo General Hospital but a mock exercise on how to transfer a susceptible patient to Mater Dei Hospital from Gozo General Hospital has never taken place. “
“Such nurses complained that the training done in Gozo General Hospital was done using the available gowns and not with the proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) required to nurse Ebola patients…with fully hooded suites and blowers incorporated in the suites,” the MUMN said.
The Union said that “in fact such hooded covered gowns which as yet are not even available in the Infectious Disease Unit in Mater Dei Hospital are also not available for the Gozo General Hospital nurses. Such nurses pointed out that proper training should start when such special PPEs are made available since nurses in Gozo (as their counterparts in Malta) have never made use of such Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).”
MUMN stated that it was also informed that “although on paper a contingency plan for the transportation of patients to Gozo General Hospital and from Gozo General Hospital to Mater Dei Hospital has been written, no mock exercises as to identify the weakness and the flaws of such plan were ever organised between Malta and Gozo.”
“Such nurses express their doubts if the police have been trained to assistant the emergency nurses in these circumstances.”
MUMN said it voiced these concerns since the lives of its members (the Nurses) when dealing with Ebola Cases are the ones at risk.
MUMN gave thanks to the nurses “not just in Gozo, but also in Malta since it would be the nursing profession from the E/As and the IDU who will be on the frontline, working 24/7 with such patients.”
The MUMN concluded by saying that while it “fully understands such anxiety and concerns of the nurses, the Health Division should at the time being refrain from issuing blank statements which are causing more harm than good to the nursing profession.”