Some 40 Pakistanis have so far applied for nursing posts with the Maltese health division because wages are low in comparison with those of western EU countries, said the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses yesterday.
Addressing a press conference on the shortage of nurses and MUMN’s campaign to attract more people to the profession, union president Paul Pace said that while they cannot object to the engagement of foreign nurses, the schooling of Pakistani nurses is “dubious”.
Meanwhile their engagement poses language problems and issues on religion, he said.
“We risk having our specialised nurses at Mater Dei Hospital transferred to hospitals for the elderly because foreigners wouldn’t be able to speak our language,” he added.
Last Tuesday, the government issued a call for the recruitment of agencies supplying some 250 qualified nurses, 29 qualified pharmacists and 20 qualified occupational therapists for a 12-month period. Proposals must be submitted by 15 July.
Asked why MUMN was specifically referring to Pakistani nationals, the union said Pakistanis were the only ones to have applied as yet. A similar call for EU applicants last year had attracted only six to eight Bulgarians and Romanians, he said.
MUMN is currently carrying out a campaign to encourage more young people to take up degrees and diplomas in nursing and midwifery. Antoinette Saliba, who is heading the campaign, said it has so far been successful and its website registered a 60 per cent increase in hits over the past few weeks. The union also received a substantial number of calls. While billboards with the message ‘Touch a Life’ were put up in various places in the country, radio and magazine adverts were also carried and facebook seemed to be the most successful means of communicating the message.
However the campaign will only be successful if students eventually apply for nursing courses and are accepted. Following a similar campaign last year, 165 students applied, yet all the eligible mature applicants, 85 students in total, were not accepted. Students sitting for resits but who were eventually awarded their Matsec certificate, were also left out, Mr Pace said.
The University of Malta needs to increase its resources to address logistic issues as it was useless to have more people applying for the two professions, when the university cannot take in all applicants.
For this reason, MUMN asked Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi last April, to set up a task force to look into the problem. It insisted this was to be chaired by the Office of the Prime Minister, while the Education and Health ministries, as well as MUMN should participate.
In reply, Dr Gonzi said the government was considering the proposal but spoke on the university’s autonomy, explaining it could not be jeopardised. MUMN is continuing to insist on this task force and will be asking the OPM as well as the education and health ministries why they were finding it difficult to set it up.
“The task force should have been set up yesterday. It cannot be set up in August, before university resumes after summer recess, as nothing can be solved then,” MUMN officials said.
Speaking to students handing a petition to MPs outside parliament last Wednesday, the Parliamentary Secretary for Community Care and the Elderly, Mario Galea, said when questioned, that last year’s admittance issue was solved.
When this was pointed out to MUMN, it said that it had not been informed about it and can only agree with Mr Galea when all applicants this year are eventually accepted.
“We were in uproar last year when we became aware of the number of Maltese students who were not being accepted and thanks to our complaints over the media, another 20 students were taken in,” MUMN said.
Last Saturday, The Malta Independent quoted Mr Pace saying that some 300 new nurses a year are necessary to meet the demand but only between 60 and 70 nurses will be graduating this year.
The last time 300 students were admitted in the nursing school was in 1985, Mr Pace said. Back then we did not have the services in place today.
An average general ward at the Mater Dei Hospital is working on a complement of two, three or four nurses per shift, when an eight person complement is necessary. Only one person per shift is meanwhile carrying out nursing duties at St Vincent de Paul residence for the elderly, MUMN said.
“Human resources give the service and not the Mater Dei Hospital building,” MUMN added.
To be able to reach these figures and achieve quality results, MUMN believed the Institute of Health Care should be taking two student intakes per year as was the case in 1985, when health services started to improve.
Health Division calls for:
250 qualified nurses
29 qualified pharmacists
20 qualified occupational therapists
Length of contract? 12 months
Applied so far? ‘40 foreigners’
MUMN claims 300 nurses are needed,
but only 60-70 Maltese are set to graduate