Nurses issues directives as lack of funds leave Boffa Hospital without cleaning agents

Pace said the Malta Union of Nurses and Midwives today had issued directives at Boffa Hospital, due to the lack of resources available to them, unlike those in the general hospital.

MUMN will be issuing directives to address the lack of nursing management, lack of uniforms and proper protective equipment and cleaning detergents.

Pace said that unlike Mater Dei Hospital, Boffa Hospital was treated like a third-class hospital by the health division, saying nurses did not ever have proper hand liquid soap and other cleaning detergents as in Mater Dei Hospital.

“Nurses are working with no proper hand liquid soap and therefore suffering from skin allergies and conditions. Cheap, unbranded cleaning products, including hand hygiene products, are bring purchased specifically for Boffa Hospital since management refuses to purchase products from the main general stores which supply Mater Dei Hospital,” Pace said.

The MUMN secretary-general also said apron holders and proper liquid soap dispensers have not been purchased for the benefit of Boffa patients.

“Although MUMN has made several tentative measures to address this situation, the health division is more concerned on the financial budget then on the welfare of the nurses and the patients.

“This shows the cost saving exercise being used by management from the Foundation for Medical Services, to the detriment of patients and nurses in Boffa Hospital. Nurses in Boffa Hospital are not even provided any scrub suits – since nurse’s uniforms are out of stock to this very day – as the other nurses working in other hospitals,” Pace said.

Pace said that Boffa’s oncology department was portrayed as one of government’s main priorities, but said the lack of funds at the hospital showed the big difference “between what is being fed to the media and the actual truth of what is actually happening.”