In what was described as a “historic moment” by Health Minster Louis Deguara, the government yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with the Union Haddiema Maghqudin (UHM) and an agreement with the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN) that will improve the working conditions, salaries and job status of various health professionals working in the public sector.
Dr Deguara explained that the aim of these agreements was to improve the working conditions of the health professionals, acting as an incentive for them to keep their present jobs while also attracting health workers that have been out of the labour market for a number of years.
The agreement reached with the MUMN will provide the nurses with a warrant and also be recognised that these can work without supervision.
“We must encourage our workers to be on the same level of the state-of-the-art hospital that will soon be in full use,” said Dr Deguara.
At the end of the day, he added, the health services and the patient will be the ones who will take advantage of this agreement.
The minister went on to say that the government also reached an agreement with the Medical Association of Malta (MAM) but added that this has to be approved by the members during an extraordinary general meeting that will be held on Monday.
The agreement with the MUMN also includes several conditions that hopes to attract nurses who have stopped working for various reasons, back to the profession.
MUMN President Paul Pace said that a substantial number of nurses – between 25 and 30 – already have shown interest in returning to work and that the number is increasing daily.
“There is a shortage of around 300 – through this agreement we will make sure that there will not be any further loss of nurses,” he said.
Another measure introduced earlier this year was a special maintenance grant for students following the nurse course offered by the Institute of Health Care – in fact, the number of students applying this year has doubled.
When speaking about the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed with the UHM, Dr Deguara said that the agreement will affect around 1,000 people including health inspectors, pharmacists, ECG technicians, paramedics and scientific professionals.
Among the various conditions agreed upon, the MOU will improve the status of paramedics and finally grant them a warrant.
“The aim is to keep in service the highest number of people while attracting more,” said Dr Deguara.
He also said that, next year, the government will offer specialisation courses for doctors that presently are only available abroad and these will be recognised in other European countries.