One person has been waiting for admission to an old people’s home since 1991, and one other person has been awaiting admission to St Vincent de Paule since 1995.

Health Minister Louis Deguara was replying to a Silvio Parnis question.

Private schools hike up their fees

Little Angels, St Cecilia Kindergarten and Oranges and Lemons Kindergarten have increased their fees this year, Education Minister Louis Galea told Carmelo Abela.

Thus the annual fees of Little Angels Kindergarten will now be Lm115 per year, for Year 1 Lm175, for Year 2 Lm185, and from Year 3 to Year 6 Lm190 per year.

Attendance at St Cecilia Kindergarten will now cost Lm110 per year while attendance at Oranges and Lemons Kindergarten will cost Lm105, the minister said.

Who should cut patients’ toenails?

Who should cut the toenails of patients, especially elderly patients, was the subject of a mini-debate during question time in Parliament yesterday evening.

Mario Galea, himself a nurse by profession, reacted to what the minister had said in a parliamentary reply yesterday morning.

It is not the duty of nurses to cut patients’ toenails, said Mr Galea. To which Dr Deguara countered by saying that podologists are not there for this purpose.

Mr Galea, defending his profession, replied that nurses study for four long years and nobody ever prepares them for toenail cutting.

Nurses are overworked as it is, he said, and any toenail cutting by inexperienced people could lead to some danger.

Dr Deguara ended by saying that cutting toenails does not come in the chiropodists’ job description, to which Mr Galea replied: Nor that of nurses.