Malta’s Alliance for Mental Health has come out in support of Joseph Pace, a Mount Carmel nurse facing a prison sentence over an incident of patient self-harm.

“Pace has a long history at Mount Carmelo Hospital of being a pillar of resilience and support for patients and staff for over 40 years,” the Alliance for Mental Health said. 

“The A4MH feels that it is uncalled for to have someone blamed for the system failure. He is known to be a dedicated and conscientious health professional who, like other professionals in the field, works under extremely challenging circumstances and has always offered his utmost.”

The alliance also revealed that it has raised the major shortcomings at Malta’s mental health services for years, reiterating that blaming Pace is “unwarranted and unjust”.

It warned that incidents like this are bound to happen again if the system itself is not addressed and all the necessary resources are deployed in the sector, which is “inundated, understaffed and underfunded”.

It backed called for an independent inquiry to address the system’s shortcomings. 

In 2017, short shortages at the mental healthcare facility led to a patient with Level 1 supervision to self-harming. Pace was interrogated and the case against him continues to this day. He faces thousands in fines and nine years in prison. 

A well-attended protest outside of Mount Carmel Hospital was held yesterday with the MUMN demanding that the case against Pace be dropped, insisting that the Ministry is yet to rectify similar issues in Mount Carmel and Mater Dei.

“Every day we have to look at what the needs of the patients are going to be and if let’s say, I need 200 people to man the hospital, without fail there are only 150,” Pace said. 

“We found him covered in blood. None of us thought about it and we just went in to help because the priority was to save him.” 

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