The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses will join the Medical Association of Malta in going ahead with their planned industrial action after talks with the government failed to reach a compromise.
In a statement published after the MUMN met Health Minister Chris Fearne, the union said that they had “witnessed a Health Minister who although is not prepared to cancel mass events, seems committed to make sure that mass events which do not abide by the Legal notice issued today will be closed permanently and fined.”
“Having said that, till now the Government has never committed seriously to proper enforcement of the legal notices issued recently on mass events due the Covid pandemic”, the union said, noting that parties and mass events had been allowed to take place with no social distancing, ignorance of all guidelines, and no legal action.
“In other words, the Government still must prove itself due to its failure of enforce regulation issued by Public Health were mass events are concerned. This is more than evident since such lack of enforcement is resulting in numerous cases of Covid-19 cases per day”, the MUMN said.
They said that the message being sent to the people by members of the government are “not the least credible”, referring to statements made by Prime Minister Robert Abela and Tourism Minister Julia Farrugia Portelli in recent days.
“In fact MUMN has information that if Malta keeps registering high new cases of Covid for the next 7 days in a row, such new cases will now be the Second Wave and Malta and Gozo is risking another partial lock down as the one in previous March”, they said.
“MUMN is convinced that if proper enforcement is to take place on mass events (such as all parties) were social distancing cannot be maintained, such mass events should be banned completely”, the statement continued.
Given this, and given that the Health Ministry is yet to come up with solutions to address shortcomings to frontliners, the MUMN said that it is not in a position to suspend the directives any further.
The directives will come into force on Friday 7 August, and are as below:
As from Friday 7th August 2020, all Nurses, Midwives working in St Vincent De Paul (SVP), Mater Dei Hospital (MDH), Gozo General Hospital (GGH), Karin Grech Hospital (KGH), Elderly Homes & Mount Carmel Hospital (MCH) are:-
Not to wash any patients;
Not to ambulate patients to an armchair from a bed and vice versa;
Not to accompany patients to X-rays, theatres, out-patients etc;
The only forms to be filled by the nurses & midwives are the nursing report, treatment charts, output/input charting, blood glucose monitoring, TPR and Sp02 monitoring; No other forms are to be filled up.
For the Physiotherapist working in SLH, Comm Care/Homes, GGH, SVP, CDAU, MCH, PHC, MDH and KGH:-
MDH
Inpatients: Orthopaedic wards: No electives surgery patients to be seen.
All other Wards: Only chest patients to be seen.
MDH outpatients: only 3 patients daily to be seen face to face by each physio.
KGH inpatients:
NO new patients to be seen and that includes patients transferred between wards;
No home visits.
KGH outpatients:
No more than 3 patients daily to be seen face to face by each physio.
CDAU
No more than 3 patients daily to be seen face to face by each physio.
SVPR
Wards: Only chest patients to be seen;
No ward rounds;
No home visits.
Outpatients: not more than 3 face to face patients daily to be seen by each physio.
MCH:
Wards: Only chest patients to be seen;
No wards rounds;
No home visits;
No classes.
Outpatients:
Not more than 3 face to face patients daily to be seen by each physio.
Primary Care:
No more than 3 face to face patients daily to be seen by each physio.
GGH wards:
No new patients to be seen;
GGH Outpatients: no more than 3 face to face patients daily to be seen by each physio.
Commcare and Homes
No more than 3 face to face patients daily to be seen by each physio.
To all ECG Technician working in all hospitals excluding SAMOC: -
Not to take ECGs which are sent and ordered through the outpatients departments;
Not to take any ECGs requested as a review between 5.00 a.m. and 7.00 a.m.
Vulnerable HealthCare Professionals (members of MUMN)
As From Friday the 7th August, all Healthcare Workers, who were considered vulnerable by Public Health in previous March/April or are currently pregnant, are to request to their respective Hospital Management to work in non-clinical areas, with no patient contact if they consider their current work place as a high risk work place. If the Hospital Administration does not provide a non-clinical placement, they are to stay at home doing teleworking like the rest of the Civil Service.
SAMOC, E/A, ITU, Renal Unit, Theatres, Neonatal Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, Delivery Suite, Primary Health Care (bloodletting) are all being exempted till now from these directives.