Paul Pace, the President of the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, has said in a statement this afternoon that the “Government’s initiatives in yesterday’s Budget did not address issues in the health sector regarding bed shortages in the elderly sector and in Mater Dei Hospital.

“The increase of doctors in the primary health care settings announced by the Ministry of Finance is not in line with the practices and modules used by the European countries to enhance and improve primary care and community services,” the Union said.

The Union added, “to address the shortage of beds in the elderly and in Mater Dei Hospital, the health care services in Malta needs an efficient team work of nurses who visit the elderly in their home settings not just to give service like the nurses of the MMDNA but to supervise the elderly to prevent readmissions to Mater Dei Hospital and to remain in their home setting without the need to be admitted in an elderly home or Mater Dei Hospital.”

“Nurses can also offer services in the community not just limited to elderly patients, but to a wider range of patients, especially as a follow up visit in nursing care so as to shorten the time patients stay in Mater Dei Hospital.”

“MUMN has obtained an EU funding project so that the Health Department can be in a position to deliver such a service in Malta,” the Union said.

“Maltese nurses were sent to Northern Ireland for training, but instead of utilising such funds and these nurses to the fullest and to address a huge vacuum in the health services, the Health Department took the wrong path, which will not address the plight and suffering of the population,” the MUMN said.

It added, “the concept of Family Health Nurse which exists in the majority of the countries in Europe and world wide is still none existent in Malta. This is one of the reasons why patients are being cared in the corridors of MDH.”

“What the Minister of Finance proposed yesterday is only a short time measure and therefore, after a few months, the situation would return back as it is today. This would result in a waste of money and will not address the main issues of the problem,” the MUMN concluded.

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