The Gozo Ministry has issued an internal call to directly employ nurses currently working at the hospital with the intent of deploying them with the elderly when the government has no such homes on the island.
In a circular it issued towards the end of the year, the ministry said it was seeking to employ nurses currently working at the Gozo General Hospital on a one-year posting, with the possibility that the contract be extended.
A ministry spokesman said when contacted that the nurses were going to be employed with the ministry to be deployed with the elderly. But sources said the government did not have even one home for the elderly on the island although one is being built in association with the church. Once completed, however, it would be given to a private company to run as a private-public partnership.
The other homes for the elderly in Gozo are owned by the Church, which has five.
Sources close to the Gozo Hospital said that many nurses were fed up with the situation at the hospital and wanted to leave.
A substantial number of them approached the ministry asking for a move elsewhere but were told to apply to be transferred to Mater Dei Hospital.
However, the majority…
