ECG technicians Sectorial Agreement, declaring dispute

Published 12th April 2023

As your office must be aware, MUMN is also having meetings on the ECG Technicians sectorial agreement, which agreement expired before that of the nurses'/midwives' sectorial agreement.

In fact, the ECG Technicians' sectorial agreement expired in July 2022 while that of the nurses/midwives expired in December 2022.

Both sectorial agreements are separate from each other. Unfortunately for unknown reasons your Permanent Secretary stopped all meetings regarding the ECG Technicians' sectorial agreement when MUMN issued directives for the nurses' / midwives' sectorial agreements.

The last meeting on the ECG Technicians' sectorial agreement, which was three weeks ago, the MFH had promised to come up with new counter proposals within one week of our last meeting. To this very day, all attempts from MUMN to have a meeting with the MFH were futile. Several emails from MUMN have been left without any reply from the Health Ministry.

It seems that a decision was taken to 'punish' MUMN for issuing directives regarding the nurses' sectorial agreement at the detriment of the ECG Technicians. Once again, this should not have happened since both sectorial agreements are SEPERATE from each other.

In the light that MFH are refusing to continue meeting on the ECG Technicians' sectorial agreement, MUMN has no option but to declare a dispute. MUMN is not ready to conclude the nurses' sectorial agreement before that of the ECG Technicians as the latter expired six months before the other.

Therefore, MUMN is declaring a dispute and if no date of a meeting is conveyed by the end of this week, MUMN will be issuing the following Directives on Friday 14th April to commence on the 17th April 2023. The press will also be informed.

The directives which will come into effect on the 17 April are:

1. No answering of calls (Not pagers) on landlines and mobiles and no use of email across the board, in all sections
2. All ELECTIVE ECGs in IN-patients, that is, planned ECGs, have to be booked 2 hours in advance. If such ECGs are booked less than 2 hours before, either the booking has to be arranged or they are booked again, otherwise the booking will not be honoured. Urgent ECGs are done after contact from the doctor is done.
3. No ECGs are done without booking except for acute cases such as CPR, and acute arrhythmias.
4. ECGs in E&A are to be requested by Medical Officers only. Nurses cannot order ECGs
5. Gozo general hospital, only requests from doctors are honoured.

 

MUMN is writing to your office to intervene and that new proposals be presented next week to prevent directives to the ECG technicians.

 

Sectoral Agreement for Nurses & Midwives 

published 22nd March 2023

 Directives to start from Friday 24^th March from 7am onwards.

 

 Directives to the Nurses working in the E/A Department:

 

• No ED nurse is to work in Area 3 if the following allocation is not met: 4 nurses in team A, 4 nurses in team B, 3 nurses in Resus, 2 nurses in triage, 2 nurses in control room, 5 nurses pre-hospital during the day shift (3 nurses in RRVs, one nurse Mosta, one nurse Paola) and 4 during the night shift (3 nurses in RRVs, one nurse from ED), a minimum of 1 nurse allocated for training and lastly, 2 nurses in team C. If area 3 is not manned and the workload of ESI-1 & 2 patients is not high, ED nurses may participate in the care of ESI-3 patients, however, the priority of the ED nurse should always be given to the more acute ESI-1 & 2 patients.

 

• Code Orange & Code Red calls should be responded to with an MDH Ambulance not a private contractor ambulance. If no MDH ambulance is available at the time of the call, a private contractor ambulance should still be used, however, MDH ambulances should always take priority in these call categories as they are better equipped, and the nurse can provide the patient with much better care.

 

• No Emergency Dept carer should be placed on elevated supervision duties. When the SNMs office does not provide a carer for this, the patient should be taken to Cubicle 24 and a security guard is to be requested by the nurse-in-charge. We need the department’s carers to care for the masses of patients present in the department and cannot be allocated with just one patient. 

 

• Fully independent patients tracked for a normal bed who are not transferred to a ward within 30 mins of being ready to be transferred out of the ED, should be transferred to the ex ED2 waiting area. Upon doing so, the ED nurse-in-charge should be informed to inform the SNMs office. This excludes patients on elevated supervision, fully dependent patients, patients requiring opiate pain relief and patients with unstable parameters. The priority of the ED nurse is to take care of acutely ill patients who need rapid emergency assessment, care and diagnosis, not patients who are ready to be transferred to a ward.

 

• ED nurses are only to perform patient transfers of ESI-1 patients, patients needing sedation, transfers to ITU and Cath Lab and transfers of clinically unstable patients.

 

Nurses working in MOT (MDH):

 

Pillar 1, 2 & 3 – Do not participate in any elective operation except those operations related to oncology patients, paediatric cases and life-threating cases. These operations are to be dealt by 2.00pm. After 2.00 pm no new operations are to commence. Those major operations which commenced before 2.00pm are to continue. Any major complex surgery which does not start before 11.00 am, will not be assisted by the nurses.

 

Pillar Four, being the Pillar where all emergency operations take place is not to be affected by the Directives. So, such Pillar is exempted from the directives. Any surgery which will be cancelled by Pillar 1,2 &3 will not be assisted by the nurses in theatre from all Pillars.

 

 

Nurses in the Primary Care Department:

 

1. All bloodletting excluding INR are to be stopped.
2. All wound care is to be done from 10am to 2.00pm

 

 Nurses and Midwives working in MDH including Maternity Wards:

 

1. All washing of patients by nurses/midwives is to be stopped immediately. This directive is exempted at ITU, NPICU and HDUs and patients with several indwelling devices. Dressing of wounds are still to be done by nurses/midwives.
2. No booking shall be done without any appointment.
3. Nurses/Midwives not to go out of ward to any errands, transfers, theatre except to highly critical areas and where there is a life-threatening situation.
4. No work whatsoever related to procurement.
5. Charge Nurses/Midwives or ward nurses not to sign for anything that is delivered at the ward such as food trolley, supplies, pharmacy, disposables etc.
6. No clerical work.

 

Nurses working at MDH Out-Patients Department:

 

1. Do not answer to any phone calls.
2. Do not take any messages from the clerks and other supporting staff.
3. Do not call any patients from the waiting rooms.

 

 Nurses working at Karen Grech Hospital:

 

1. All washing of patients by nurses is to be stopped immediately. This directive is exempted to patients with several indwelling devices. Dressing of wounds are still to be done by nurses/midwives.
2. Bed-state to be reduced to 22 patients per ward.

 

 Nurses working at Gozo General Hospital:

 

1. All washing of patients by nurses is to be stopped immediately. This directive is exempted at ITU/CCU and patients with several indwelling devices. Dressing of wounds are still to be done by nurses/midwives.
2. Not to go out to do any errands and transfer of patients.
3. Charge Nurses or ward nurses are not to sign for anything that is delivered to the ward such as food trolley, supplies, pharmacy, disposables etc.

4. Charge Nurses are not to attend the SNMs office periodically to do any Senior Nursing Manager duties.

1. No clerical work

 

Nurses working in mental community care:

 

1. Not to accompany doctors during patient reviews
2. No to attend meetings with management.
3. Not to send daily absence forms.
4. No intake assessments on new referrals.
5. Not to answer telephones after 2.00 pm.
6. Not to collect or send any data for statistical purposes.

 

Nurses working at Old SVP:

 

As there is an existing agreement not to wash patients, nurses are to follow these Directives –

 

1. Not to answer to any phone calls.
2. Not to go out to do any errands and transfer of patients.
3. Charge Nurses or ward nurses are not to sign for anything that is delivered to the ward such as food trolley, supplies, pharmacy, disposables etc.
4. No clerical work

 

 

Nurses working in Elderly Homes:

1. Nursing Report is to be written only when a change in patients' condition has occurred.
2. Nurses are not to wash, ambulate or take parameters since all such duties can be done by auxiliary staff. 
3. Nurses are not to fill any care plans to cope with the sheer number of patients on your ward.
4. The only paperwork to be done is to stock the ward with supplies or pharmacy.
5. Nurses are only to phone relatives if there is deteriorated in the condition of the resident or the resident is taken to MDH.
6. Nurses are not to make use of phone even if called by the ward clerk, concentrate our duties on the patients.
7. Head Counts are not to be done. That is a security duty besides head counts are not in the job description of the nurse.

Nurses working at Community Care Unit:

1. Nurses are not to do any outside visits.

Nurses working at Mt. Carmel Hospital:

 

1. All washing of patients by nurses is to be stopped immediately. This directive is exempted on patients with several indwelling devices. Dressing of wounds are still to be done by nurses.
2. Not to go out to do any errands and transfer of patients.
3. Charge Nurses or ward nurses are not to sign for anything that is delivered to the ward such as food trolley, supplies, pharmacy, disposables etc.
4. No clerical work.
5. SNO’s office not to process any paperwork related to the Mental Health Act.
6. Not to open the ward doors.
7. No IOS for maintenance works.

8. If a patient returns from short term leave but their bed has been filled due to a lack of space, then they are not to be allowed in the ward. Instead, they are to be directed to the transit ward so that the medical profession has to find a bed for the patient.
9. No ward is to accept the introduction of additional beds.
10. All nursing management (both night management and day management) are to refrain to do any work related to bed management.

 

SAMOC Hospital is excluded from Industrial Directives pertaining to the New Sectoral Agreement.

 

Senior Nursing Managers are to adhere with the Directives of their respective hospitals and support their Nurses/Midwives.

 

Practice Nurses/Midwives, Senior and Advanced Practice Nurses/Midwives:

 

1. Not perform any duties that are not directly related to PN/SPN role.
2. No job shadowing (clinical shadowing) of nurses with practice nurses
3. Not see outpatients without an appointment (excluding SAMOC)
4. No participation in development of new or updating of existing guideline documents.
5. Stop providing clinical practice audit reports.
6. Not answering any calls from landline telephones
7. No swabbing for MRSA and COVID-19 by Practice Nurses
8. No booking of blood tests or swabs by Practice Nurses
9. No booking of transport for patients

 

It is important to note that if any intimidation is conveyed to you, please report immediately to MUMN Office on 21448542 or send an email to administrator@mumn.org

 

MUMN Council

 

 

MUMN issuing Directives to all ECG Technicians

Published 9th February 2023

MUMN declared a dispute regarding the various issues within the ECG Department and an urgent meeting was held at the Ministry for Health with the scope of reversing back to the practises which were in place two weeks ago.

Unfortunately, such meeting was inconclusive with the result that the issues were not addressed at all.

Therefore, MUMN is constrained to initiate industrial actions and will escalate further industrial actions next week if the situation remains the same.

As from tomorrow, the 10^th February 2023, from 7am onwards, the following directives will come into effect:-

 

1. All ELECTIVE ECGs, that is routine ECGs, have to be booked 2 hours in advance. If such ECGs are booked less than 2 hours before, either the booking has to be arranged or they are booked again, otherwise the booking will not be honored. Urgent ECGs are done after contact from the doctor is done.
2. No ECGs are done without booking except for acute cases such as CPR, and acute arrythmias.
3. No ECGs to be done in the ECG room in E&A

MUMN will keep your posted if any developments take place.

MUMN Council

Open Letter to all ECG technicians working In MDH

Published 3rd February 2023

Ms. Falzon,

Mr. Mark Caruana, Manager of the ECG Technicians in MDH, has processed several drastic changes within the ECG Department in MDH these last two weeks, all at the detriment of the ECG technicians and the patients who make use of the service of such an important department.

Such changes negatively affected the working conditions of the ECG technicians and the service to the patients. Needless to point out, the changes, which took place in these last two weeks, were out of panic, with no consultation with the union and with no consultations with the same Principals ECG Technicians working in the ECG department. When the ECG technicians tried to protest on these changes, Mr. Mark Caruana acted as purely as a Dictator would do and would not even offer even a valid reason to back the changes made by his office.  

Mr. Caruana hard headedness resulted in the following:

Mr. Caruana ignored completely the CEO orders of the capping of 100 hours overtime per month but kept insisting that overtime of all ECG technicians is capped to 60 hours per month overtime. This demonstrates that Mr. Caruana ignored completely instructions from your office as CEO. This angered the ECG technicians and is purely subordination to your office.

 

1. Stopped all training in all departments of the ECG, which will result that no new ECG technicians can be deployed in specialized areas where training is compulsory to perform for the good of the patient.

 

1. Changed shifts of ECG technicians with no rationale to justice but by purely imposition.

 

1. Changed the compliment of the ECG technicians in various sections within MDH with no consultations with the union representing the ECG technicians and at the detriment of the service.

MUMN would not stand to such dictatorship or ignorance and would not tolerate that working conditions are changed by Mr. Caruana at the detriment of the ECG technicians. The ECG technicians are all up in arms with Mr. Caruana who is the culprit for the turmoil caused in the ECG department.

Due to Mr. Caruana senseless unapproved changes, MUMN is declaring a dispute which would lead to directives within all the ECG department.

If by Wednesday, the 8th of February 2023, Mr. Caruana would not revert:

1. All ECG technicians to their state which was two weeks ago.
2. Restart all training which use to take place as two weeks ago.
3. Continue to maintain the ECG compliment as it was two weeks ago.

MUMN will be issuing a whole set of directives, Thursday the 9th of February 2023 to address the injustices caused by Mr. Caruana if our requests are not met.

But with immediate effect, MUMN is issuing a directive to Ms. Maria Pace Farrugia, who for an unknown reason suffered a change of shift under the hands of Mr. Caruana, to go back to her original shift and to ignore any instructions from Mr. Caruana. This change of shift effected Ms. Pace Farrugia in a terrible way that even affected her wellbeing.

Paul Pace

President

 

Directive for Physiotherapists members of MUMN at Physiotherapy Dept St. Luke's Hospital

Published 6th December 2022

Although MUMN suspended the directives from the 13^th October 2022 , physiotherapists working in SLH are still not allowed to take over of their patients from MDH outpatients.

Also we have to treat physiotherapists as professionals and not as simple carers so that two hour interval from 9.00 am till 11.00 am which was meant to initiate last October, is not in agreement with MUMN since this demonstrates that MDH/Steward has great disrespect and untrustworthiness to the physiotherapists.

In this respect MUMN is issuing a directive to its  members at SLH Physiotherapy department  that as from Monday 5^th December 2022, no new patients  referred to the Outpatients Dept at SLH for physiotherapy shall be seen,  except for patients of Mr. Borg, Mr. Casaletto and Pain Clinic to which physiotherapists are currently attending at OOP  and other outpatient clinic in Mater Dei,  for hand over and liaison, until the above request is settled.

Regards,

Paul Pace President MUMN

Colin Galea General Secretary MUMN

 

Directive for Physiotherapists members of MUMN at Physiotherapy Dept St. Luke's Hospital

Published 28th September 2022

For the past 3 years these physiotherapists have been continuously bringing to the attention of all physiotherapy management,  CEOs of both Mater Dei Hospital  and Karin Grech-Steward Health Care and  the Health  Directorate , the need to attend in OOP clinics and other outpatients clinics at Mater Dei in order to initiate patient care pathway, triage and be in direct liaison with the referring consultants in view of quality of care, continuation of care and the planning of effective care processes, of patients being referred to St. Lukes Physiotherapy department .

St. Lukes Physiotherapy department receives 98% of all patients generated from Mater Dei.  A standard operating procedure has also been handed to the concerned stakeholders but there was never any official reply in this regard.    Unfortunately, these physiotherapists have been struggling all along for this basic request to improve patient care. This is important for continuous patient care which the management has no right to intervene since this is a purely clinical aspect. 

MUMN had the approval of the Health Directorate and the CEO of Mater Dei around mid-July, however for some strange reason there was a back track and physiotherapists from SLH were kicked out of OOP this week with security officers, even when they were following the written directives of MUMN and the management was notified. This is undignifying !

In this respect MUMN is issuing a directive to its members at SLH Physiotherapy department that as from Monday 3rd October 2022, no new patients referred to the Outpatients Dept at SLH for physiotherapy shall be seen, except for patients of Mr. Borg, Mr. Casaletto and Pain Clinic to which physiotherapists are currently attending at OOP and other outpatient clinic in Mater Dei, for hand over and liaison, until the above request is settled.

Regards,

Colin Galea

General Secretary

MUMN

 

Updated: MUMN Directive on Closure of Schools & Childcare Facilities

Published 5th January 2022

Dear Member,

We are re-issuing an Industrial Directive regarding the closure of schools and childcare facilities.

The Directive enables all our members, who are going to be left stranded from next Monday 15 March 2021 onwards where their children [14 years and under] are concerned, to stay home with their children. Foster, adopted and guardianship children are also included in this Directive.Read more

 

Industrial Directive to all ECG Technicians

Published 20th December 2021

Ms. Mahoney,

Nixtieq ninfurmak li l-MUMN ma tistax tistenna aktar sabiex zball li ghamel id-Dipartiment tas-Sahha fuq 7 Allied Assistants jigi rimedjat biex jircievu l-grad ta’ ECG Technicians. Read More

Directives to MUMN members working in CSSD

Published 3rd December 2021

All MUMN members working in CSSD are to ignore the notice issued by Dirk Farrugia on 03/12/21.

 

Electronic devices do not pose a life-threatening situation in the sterile area so ignore such notice since it is not justifiable.

 

Such notice shows the ignorance from infection control since all packs from the outside are packed in non-woven material and not handled with sterile gloves.Read More

 

Directives to all MUMN Members working at the Engineering Division at

MDH in all Technical Grades

Published 2nd December 2021

Sectorial Agreements are not meant to be to discriminate between one professional from another professional within the same sectorial agreement having the same responsibilities.Read More

 

 

Directives to all Dental Surgery Assistants

Published 2nd December 2021

 

Ms. Celia Falzon 

CEO - MDH

 

Dear Ms. Falzon,

 

The Health Ministry has just informed us that the Dental Surgery Assistants' Sectoral Agreement is ready to be signed.

 

In this context, we are uplifting the Industrial Directives that the DSAs were going to start next week.

 

Regards,

 

Colin Galea

MUMN 

Published 1st December 2021

It is not acceptable that the sectoral agreement of the DSA which has been finalized two months ago is continuously being refused to be signed by the Health Division. The directives of the DSAs were specifically for their sectorial agreement and MUMN was responsible enough that once the agreement was reached with the Health Division on the DSAs sectorial agreement, all directives of the DSAs were removed.Read More

 

Further Directives to all Phlebotomists and DSTs

Published 16th November 2021

It is clear that MFH has no regard either to the Health Professionals nor to MDH management. CPD Allowance was given to other categories of Health Care Workers with the same academic entries alike the Phlebotomists and DSTs. The MFH has the same Permanent Secretary and the same IRU using two weights and two measures.Read More

 

MUMN re-issuing directives regarding the DSAs and DSTs/Phlebotomists Sectorial

Agreements

Published 27 th October 2021

The Health Division is still classifying the Phlebotomists and the DSTs as second-class health professionals. There is still no agreement on the sectorial agreement with the Health Division offering scales progression and increase in CPD to other Health professionals but not to the Phlebotomists and the DSTs. The Health Division is being discriminated against in confront to these two professions acting with two weights and two measures, losing all credibility. MUMN provided prove that another category of workers has CPD and salary progression but the health Division decided to ignore such prove and said their CPD and salary progression were “mistakes” of the past. Read more

 

MUMN re-issuing directives regarding the DSAs and DSTs/Phlebotomists Sectorial

Agreements

Published 12th October 2021

The Health Division clearly does not respect the work and does not recognize the dedication of the phlebotomists, DSAs, and the DSTs. This is evident since the Health Division has chosen the path to take the union to a court, having a very false pretext that the court will dishearten you and will make the union weaker. How wrong was the Health Division!!!. Now that the decision of the mandatory issue has been issued, MUMN is once again fighting so that the DSAs, DSTs, and the Phlebotomists will have a decent sectorial agreement. Progression and increase in allowances with CPD is still being requested strongly as ever. Read More

 

 

Directive to all Phlebotomists

Published 11th October 2021

Dear Dr. Barbara,

It is clear that UHM has issued directives to Ms. Marisa Saliba not to attend MDH after SAMOC. 

This is unfair on all other phlebotomists in MDH who always gave service to SAMOC wards when Marisa Saliba and Deborah Buttigieg are not present at work.Read More

 

Directive to all Nurses and Midwives in all grades who are expected to fill in  an

Appraisal Report for the PMP

Published 8th October 2021

The Health Division discriminated against the Nurses and Midwives by making them fill in an annual appraisal reports which reports results in financial reductions to nurses and midwives in their PMP. On the contrary the allied group, in their sectoral agreement, it was agreed that they do not need to fill this appraisal report Read More

 

 

New Directive to all DSTs

Published 17th September 2021

A new directive is being issued by MUMN due to the bullying being made by Mr. Antonio Gauci who scientific officer in CSSD.

Such a person is continuously writing emails against MUMN representatives and also is acting as a strikebreaker to our directives. Read more

 

 

Updated: MUMN Directive on Closure of Schools & Childcare Facilities

Published 12th March 2021

We are re-issuing an Industrial Directive regarding the closure of schools and childcare facilities. Read more

 

Important Notice to All Nurses regarding the 16 hours extra vacation leave to ALL our Members in all hospitals and other places of work and the Meal Allowance for the Nurses working at the PHCD.

AGREEMENT REACHED- DIRECTIVES STOPPED

Published 9th October 2020

We would like to inform you that the Government is doing its utmost to neutralise our Directives regarding the 16 hours extra vacation leave to ALL our Members in all hospitals and other places of work and the Meal Allowance for the Nurses working at the PHCD. Read More

 

Important Notice to all MUMN Members - Directive on Influenza vaccine

AGREEMENT REACHED- DIRECTIVES STOPPED

Published 7th October 2020

The issue of the extra 12 hours Vacation Leave will fall squarely on the laps of all members of MUMN in the coming days. While the current administration, rightly so,  decided to give back this stolen vacation leave to all civil servants,  Nurses, ECG Technicians and Midwives who happen to work more than eight hour shifts for the sake of the patients were penalized by having 12 hours of Vacation Leave not returned back to them. Read More

 

Important Notice to All MUMN Members New Directives to be Implemented in Various Places of Work

Published 22nd September 2020

MUMN had just terminated the meeting with the Health Division on several issues:-

1. It was confirmed that the Sunday and Feasts Allowances during Quarantine Leave (related to work) has been finalizied and is now being implemented by Human resources in all Hospitals and other Health Institutions so that they will not be deductions as from 1st July 2020 on such allowances; All MUMN members are to benefit on this measure. Read More

 

Directives to all Nurses, Midwives, Physiotherapists, ECG Technicians and Social Workers regarding latest Agreement with Health Division.

Published 31st August 2020

MUMN Council regrets to inform you that the latest agreement reached with the Health Division will not be implemented by the Permanent Secretary. This implies that Nurses, Midwives, Physiotherapists and other members of MUMN will still have deductions in their payroll when sent on quarantine and the 12 hours of VL due to the Public Holidays will not be granted. Also the Health Division failed to employ the 260 TCNs much needed in all hospitals. Read More

Nebulization Procedure due to the Current Covid-19 Situation – Attention all Nurses and Midwives

Published 18th August 2020

MUMN would like to inform you that contrary to the memo issued by the Infection Control Unit, the nebulisation procedure should only be done as follows: Read More

  

MUMN & Government Reach an Agreement re: Covid-19 Issues

Published 14th August 2020

MUMN has reached an agreement with the Health Department (Elderly Care & Community Care Department in the coming days) with the collaboration of the Hon. Prime Minister and the Hon. Deputy Prime Minister. Read More