Students who are soon to graduate in the allied health care professions, including podologists, physiotherapists and speech therapists, have been left in the dark to whether they would be given a job with the government, as is normal practice.

Speaking to this newsroom, Matthew Camilleri, a student who has graduated in health sciences, said that interviews were conducted some three and the half months ago with students who are to graduate very soon but to date have not received any form of acknowledgement which would determine their future in terms of jobs.

"Normally," he explained, "such students are given a job with the government despite the fact that there's nothing that officially binds the government in having to do so.

"But the issue that is bothering us is the fact that we have been left in the dark to whether we will be given a job," he said.

His comments to this newsroom come after shadow health minister Claudio Grech said that around 90 graduates from the Faculty of Health Sciences are yet to be given jobs. Mr Grech was speaking during a news conference held outside the faculty of sciences. Mr Grech said that these students had their education paid by the taxpayer and that waiting lists in certain cases related to their professions are quite long, meaning that their skills could very well address the problems of patients' waiting lists.

UHM insists all new professionals should be employed with health ministry

The health services section within the Union Haddiema Maghqudin has, for the past months, been insisting that all new allied health professionals, that have successfully read a degree in Health Sciences, are to be employed within the Ministry of Health, this newspaper has been informed by the union.

"This is due to the fact that there is lack of professionals in this sector and the professionals at the various public hospitals and clinics have been doing miracles to cope with the influx of patients.

"For these reasons, the union engaged in a string of meetings with all the 10 professions of allied health professionals, both the ones already working within the health sector and also with the new graduates.

"During these meetings the need of each profession was outlined, whereby it was very apparent that the current cohort is not enough for the needs of the health sector.

"Last week, the union had a meeting with Ministry for Health officials whereby the union outlined its position that all professionals should be employed and the union would not exclude ordering industrial action should the lack of professionals remain. To date, the ministry has not committed itself to how many professionals it would engage. ," the UHM said.

MAM says government needs to budget for increased health care costs

When contacted, Gordon Caruana Dingli, the president of the Medical Association of Malta (MAM), said that with the increased demands on health care services there will be an increase in the needs for health care professionals and this means that the government needs to budget for the increased costs.