The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses has said that unless the government meets the demands it has set by this Friday, it is prepared to take industrial action to safeguard the interests of its members.

MUMN president Paul Pace has spoken about a shortfall of 187 nurses at Mater Dei Hospital, adding that this is pushing nurses into working 80-hour weeks (when their normal weekly hours should total 46).

What is perhaps worse, he pointed out, is that this situation is adding extra pressure on the nurses who cannot cope with the workload. Mistakes committed by nurses could be costly, and an over-tired nurse is more prone to commit them than a nurse who is working with a fresh mind.

Among its requests, the union is calling upon the government to employ more nurses to meet the demands of the hospital. As examples, Mr Pace mentioned that there is a shortage of 18, 20 and 10 nurses in the Intensive Care Unit, operating theatres and the Renal Unit respectively.

Strangely, the government has remained silent after Mr Pace’s comments. Normally, ministers are always prepared with counter-statements to rebut others issued by the opposition and constituted bodies. This time round, the Social Policy Ministry, which is responsible for health issues, has not replied to the union’s threat.

Of course, this does not mean that the ministry is unaware of the issues brought up, or that it is ignoring them. It could be that the government is waiting to see whether the MUMN will eventually resort to issuing directives to its members when the deadline expires on Friday.

This newspaper has often commented that a state-of-the-art hospital, such as Mater Dei, will be nothing unless the services offered are up to standard. If the people offering such services – the doctors, nurses and all the other staff involved in the running of a hospital – cannot do so at 100 per cent of their capabilities because of certain circumstances, then it is the patients who will suffer the consequences.

It must be said that, in most cases, the services offered at Mater Dei Hospital are of high quality. The dedication and commitment that is shown by the staff at the hospital is to be commended in most situations.

And it is precisely because of this that the government and the unions should find common ground on such a situation. If the nurses feel that they are being stretched to the limit, and that they are working more hours than they should, then it is likely that the level of the service they offer will decline, and the government has the duty to see that the public hospital will continue to provide the best possible assistance to people in need of medical treatment.

On the other hand, nurses and their representatives cannot expect the government to make miracles and produce nurses – and the money needed to pay for their services – by clicking its fingers.

The MUMN must think it over a million times before it orders industrial action or, worse, a strike. While it is understandable that a union seeks to improve the conditions of work of its members, it must also understand that it has its own responsibilities towards the people who receive services from these members.

In this case, the union has to be more careful since we are talking about people who need treatment in hospital. It is already a trauma for many to have to spend some time in hospital; having to do so with nurses not giving their full service because of industrial action will add to the anxiety.