Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1468438
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 22 MAY 2022 8 INTERVIEW Nurses are 'out of stock' Three weeks have passed since Joe Pace was arrested on man- slaughter charges. But in the meantime, a number of dis- crepancies have emerged. For instance: at the MUMN press conference on May 4, you said that: "there has never been an inquiry about the incident." Yet when pressing charges, the po- lice themselves claim to have acted 'on the basis of a mag- isterial inquiry's conclusions'. Can you clarify this apparent contradiction? Was there an in- quiry, or wasn't there? Let me put it this way: we later discovered, after that press-con- ference, that there WAS, in fact, a magisterial inquiry. But what I found very strange, is that… the magistrate never called in either Joe Pace himself, or any other nurse, to hear their version of events. This is, in fact, why I had ear- lier thought that there hadn't been any inquiry at all. Because - even if it turns out that there was one, in the end – the fact remains that we ourselves didn't know about it, throughout these past five years. And personally, I can't even conceive of a magisterial inquiry, where the main stakeholders are not even given the opportunity to testify; and where the magis- trate reaches his or her conclu- sions, without even talking to any of the people involved. Now: I am not a legal person, myself; but I do know that, usu- ally, in an investigation you have to hear all sides of the argument. You have to interrogate people; and get to the bottom of what really happened. In this case, however: first of all, the magistrate took near- ly five years, to conclude what should really have been a very straight-forward inquiry. And secondly, none of the main wit- nesses – including the accused himself – was even called in for questioning. So much so, that not even Joe Pace himself knew that there was an inquiry going on! It's something we all found about, much later… Meanwhile, you also argued that – while Mr Pace himself may end up bearing the brunt of the legal responsibility - the blame really lies with the Health Ministry, for failing to pro- vide enough nurses in the first place. This chimes in with your earlier claims (specifically with regard to the COVID pandemic) that the nursing profession was facing a full-blown 'crisis'. First of all: does this mean the COV- ID nursing crisis is still in full swing today? First of all, there has always been a shortage in the nursing profession, from long before the pandemic. But what happened is that COVID-19 exacerbated the problem, to such a degree that: yes, we can now refer to it as a 'crisis'. And a major one, at that. To give you a rough idea of how bad the situation has be- come: the official figures have always been kept secret by the government, but I can confirm that over 400 nurses – from both government and private sectors - have left the service, since the beginning of the pandemic. And now, we are such in a state that… not only are there not enough nurses for 'constant watches' [of the kind that was needed by the patient, in the Joe Pace]; but there is not a single ward, anywhere in the health sector, that is not currently reg- istering a huge number of va- cancies… including, naturally, Mount Carmel. So while COVID did make the problem much worse – not just for Malta, but also world-wide - the reality is that Malta did not do what other countries did, when faced with the same crisis. For instance: other countries responded by forking out mon- ey from their own pocket, and going on an international re- cruiting drive. In fact, many of those 400 nurses were actual- ly poached by other countries: primarily, the United Kingdom. We even had representatives of the NHS coming to Mal- ta, to conduct interviews with prospective nurses; and I can even tell you at which local ho- tel those interviews took place, too… And if they succeeded, it's be- cause they offered very favour- able conditions: including lodg- ing; accommodation for family members; better salaries, and so on. So naturally, I don't blame those nurses for leaving… espe- cially, the young ones. But still: the crisis is there; it's real; and now, it's being felt more than ever. Just to give you a few other ex- amples: there are cardiac-mon- itoring beds, at Mater Dei, that are currently not in use, because of the lack of trained nurses. At St Vincent de Paule, there are currently around 150 beds that are vacant, for the same reason. Now, we even have problems at the Renal Department: where there are renal machines, but no nurses to actually operate them. So basically, it's beginning to affect the health service as a whole… Are you suggesting then, that the patient in question was ac- tually a victim, not of 'criminal negligence' at all, but of the system itself? Yes: you could put it like that, if you like. What I myself said at that press conference, though, was that this is another case of 'out-of-stock'. As everyone knows, there are often times in this country when certain medi- cines are 'out of stock'; and when that happens, the unfortunate reality is that… we simply can't The recent arrest of Mount Carmel Hospital head-nurse Joe Pace - on charges of criminal negligence leading to the death of a patient - has clearly shocked the medical establishment. But as MUMN President PAUL PACE warns: it was also the predictable result of a 'ticking timebomb', affecting the healthcare service as a whole Raphael Vassallo rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt