There was little to alleviate the discomfort of patients and residents in the comments of union secretary Louis Marsh when asked of the effects inflicted on elderly residents of the St Vincent de Paule residence.
“All forms of action will affect someone but it has never changed and probably never will,” the General Workers Union secretary said of the industrial actions ordered last Friday, where nursing aides and other health workers have restricted their normal duties to food-related jobs.
Louis Marsh was quick to correct Colin Galea, the secretary-general of the malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, who claimed only one nurse and two aides were attending to patients at St Vincent de Paule during night-shifts. “It’s not true. There is a skeleton staff working night shifts with one nurse and two nursing aides in charge of each ward.”
What Marsh did not mention was the number of patients in each ward, which varies from 20 to 40 patients, and where the number of nurses attending each ward is still minimal, with a workload which cannot be handled by one person alone.
Dr Ronald Fiorentino, the medical director at St Vincent De Paule said patients who are not mobile cannot be moved since each nurse cannot lift more than 25 kilos alone.
“The administration has arranged for more nurses and care workers to work at the hospital although the supply of nurses and aides is limited and the demand is high. Private contractors cannot always reach the demand.”
Fiorentino said relatives of residents were helping. In previous years 330 special permits have been issued to relatives and friends to help. “However, there were just two or three requests for new permits this year,” Fiorentino said.
On Monday, Louis Marsh emphasised the point that nursing aides and care workers are obliged to assist in the work but not to do the work done by nurses. “The work is still being done by nurses but it is just being done at a slower rate.”