MUMN has announced a suspension of the current strike of nurses and midwives working in Malta’s hospitals following a sectorial agreement presented by the government today.

“The Council of the MUMN will call an Extraordinary General Meeting for nurses and midwives to present the Sectoral Agreement granted by the Government to them so that we can decide whether it is acceptable or not,” the lobby wrote in a statement.

“In addition, the MUMN will remain consistent with what it announced and will suspend all Industrial Directives linked to this process from tomorrow at 7am.”

Still, the lobby accuses the government of “burying its head n the sand” about finding solutions to midwives’ and nurses’ salary issues.

Now, it says, they will decide whether the proposals offered by the government sufficiently meet their demands.

It is the third week that over 4,000 nurses and midwives are striking across Malta’s hospitals.

Directives were issued relating to salaries and other issues affecting the health workers in private and public hospitals.

On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne and the Ministry for Health urgently requested the opening of a conciliation process with the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses for the sake of patients left in limbo due to the strike.

Additionally, more than 80 gynaecological surgeries have been cancelled because of the current midwives and nurses strike, proving to be “dangerous” for patients, according to the Malta College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

The college warned that while all nurses, midwives, doctors and allied healthcare professionals do everything in their power to maintain patient safety, the impact of these industrial actions on patient care and safety is “dangerous” and “detrimental”.

MUMN has accused the government of previously making a U-turn since its meeting last week, in which the ministry promised to discuss funding at Cabinet level.

The lobby will now assess the proposals and determine whether the strike will end indefinitely.