Ministry of Health, Care of the Elderly and Family Affairs replies to UHM Statement

The Ministry for Health, Care for the Elderly & Family Affairs refers to a press statement released by the UHM last week.

Since the October 1996 elections, the Department of Health recruited 335 new employees in various sectors of the Health Division. Furthermore 175 employees were given a promotion. The ministry also launched a conversion course aimed at those enrolled nurses who wished to proceed in their career and become staff nurses. It is also the Government's declared policy to give the maximum financial support to all those citizens who wish to pursue a course in the nursing and allied professions by keeping the stipend system intact to these university courses.

The Division of Health is in the process of finalizing a Manpower Plan, which will meet the human resources requirements for the coming three years. This will cater for a better organized and more efficient health care service, including the needs for the New University Teaching Complex at Tal-Qroqq. This laborious exercise on this new manpower plan has been going on for the past months, far before the UHM issued thier statement. As a matter of fact, the formulation of this plan was mentioned on various occasions when formal meetings with the UHM were held.

Thus the 312 casual workers, representing 4% of the total health workforce, will eventually be employed on a regular basis. The administrative work on the part of the Health Division is nearing completion. Most of these posts have been referred to and approved by the Cabinet Committee on Recruitment in the Public Sector. It is only minor technical details that have still to be ironed out before final agreement is reached.

One may be tempted to conclude that the UHM knew all this and issued a press statement to try and get all the credit.