More nurses for Mater Dei operating theatres

Additional anaesthetic nurses are to be deployed at Mater Dei Hospital’s main operating theatres, following a meeting about union directives called over staff shortages. Last week, nurses at Mater Dei’s main operating theatre were instructed by the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN) not to participate in medical interventions in cases of shortages. The directives applied to some 190 scrub and anaesthetic nurses, deputy charge, charge and practice nurses. As a consequence, some operations were postponed and two theatres remained closed on Monday. Ten days from when the directives kicked in, the union met the management and both agreed that when it comes to health and safety issues, there were no halfway measures, MUMN general secretary Colin Galea said when contacted. Mr Galea said that according to international standards, there should be two anaesthetic nurses with every three patients (1:1.5) recovering from an operation, however, over the past years this has decreased to one nurse with three or four patients.  The union had therefore ordered its members to work only if there were six anaesthetic nurses in the main theatre recovery area, and another four in the...