Doctors denounce union ‘bullying’, says nurses not specialised enough

A dispute between the doctors' and nurses' union is brewing over an alleged verbal agreement the Department of Health acceded to, to allow emergency nurses administer medication to patients in ambulances without a doctor prescribing it.

Yesterday, doctors' union president Martin Balzan called for legal amendments to the healthcare and medicines acts to allow emergency nurses to prescribe medicines, and also called for further training to ensure paramedics or specialist nurses are equipped with the necessary expertise.

Balzan said the Medical Association of Malta was calling on the nursing profession to lobby with the government to develop post-graduated training.

But Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses president Paul Pace has rubbished Balzan's claims, insisting that nurses were professionals as much as doctors and enjoyed an autonomous warrant to practice their vocation.

"Nurses who will administer emergency medication are specialised already from overseas, and the agreement does not breach any law," Pace said replying to Balzan's statements.

Pace said the MUMN is ready to take strike action by stopping nurses from boarding ambulances, unless they are allowed to "save peoples' lives" by administering emergency medication they might require on ambulances.

As things stand, doctors are not always available to board ambulances en route to collect patients.

On his part, Balzan replied to Pace accusing the union of bullying the department of health into the agreement, and now threatening the discontinuation of the ambulance service rather than improving nursing standards.

"MAM maintains its stand that appointments in the government health service should never be linked to fictitious qualifications as has happened in the case of 'specialist nurses' when no such qualification exists.

"The health authorities should defend patient interest and not give in to 'bullying' in such circumstances by conceding to manifestly illegal requests."