New admissions at St Vincent de Paul home for the elderly are unlikely anytime soon as negotiations between the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN) and government are at a standstill.

“There can be no place for negotiations, before Rhys Xuereb is given back his job and reimbursed his missing pay for the past few months,” MUMN president Paul Pace told The Malta Independent on Sunday.

The Union believes that Xuereb was made a “scapegoat” for system failures that led to the disappearance of Carmelo Fino from the residence last summer.

Xuereb had been suspended after Fino, an 83-year-old dementia patient, went missing from the home in late June and he was later found dead in a Birzebbuga field a few days later.

An internal inquiry later found that the man’s disappearance was the result of shortcomings in the standard of care provided by employees rather than a systematic failure, a conclusion that was rejected by the MUMN and sparked a trade dispute. The MUMN had taken exception to the conclusions of the inquiry and had issued directives to nurses in protest. Among them was for nurses not to accept new patients, with the Union demanding that there should be at least two nurses manning wards during the night shift, with three nurses on the day shift.

The non-acceptance of new patients at the home has led to a situation in which elderly people continue to occupy beds at Mater Dei Hospital although they could be sent to the SVPR home.

Earlier this month, Health Minister Chris Fearne had said that the shortage of beds at Mater Dei was a direct consequence of the MUMN’s industrial action.

In a press conference, he had also said that government will meet with the MUMN to find a compromise for the impasse to be resolved.

This newspaper also reached out to the Ministry for Health for a comment on the matter, but was told to redirect the questions to the Ministry for Active Aging. In answer to our questions, the Ministry said that “government has a series of proposals that are open for discussion and is awaiting the MUMN to engage in a fruitful manner”.

But no deadline was set and it is unclear as to when the talks will resume, four months after the directives started.

Contacted by The Malta Independent on Sunday last Thursday, Pace said that Health Minister Fearne is trying to pin the blame on the MUMN for the shortage of beds at Mater Dei Hospital.

The lack of beds is due to the lack of investment in the hospital for the last six years, Pace argued.

Pace said that the six areas at Mater Dei hospital that have been used as wards because of the Covid-19 pandemic, which include corridors, the medical library and the staff canteen, “will remain open irrespective of whether there are directives in place at SVPR or not”.

"Fearne is using the directives just as an excuse to hide his failures,” Pace said, adding that “nobody should blame nurses” for taking industrial action.

“MUMN is also requesting that Xuereb be assisted by a lawyer paid by the Ministry for the Elderly,” Pace said.