The MUMN has warned today that “pressure on the existing nursing work force especially in ITU is already leaving its adverse effect.”

In a statement the union said, “with all hype on the media of having 75 ITU beds in Mater Dei and 25 beds in the Gozo General Hospital, MUMN would like to inform the public that there are not sufficiently trained nurses available to treat Covid-19 patients with such a huge number of ITU beds in both hospitals.”

MUMN stressed that “it is not just the number of ITU beds which is important but what is also important is that every ITU bed requires highly specialist nurses to manage ventilators and intensive nursing care.”

The MUMN added that it has requested a meeting with MDH management “on this serious issue since ultimately the nurses will suffer with the patient paying the ultimate price.”

MUMN warned that the “increase of Covid cases being issued on a daily basis will definitely have a negative impact on all hospitals including primary care, elderly institutions and MDH at the detriment of the patients and the staff.”

The union stressed that these increases in numbers “will result in more patients being admitted to hospitals and more outbreaks of Covid will result in our Healthcare setting.”

MUMN appealed to both to the public and the Government for enforcement and adherence to hand washing, social distancing and wearing of masks is especially important.

MUMN concluded by saying that it is “expecting that the Government would consider other measures that other European countries are following. Eventually such huge number of Covid cases arising will be catastrophic both in the Health sector and in the Economy.”

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