“Give us your work for free,” Konrad Mizzi tells doctors at general hospital

I have received this email.

Dear Ms Caruana Galizia,

I would like to let you know about something that is going on at Mater Dei Hospital. Doctors’ official working hours there are from 7.45am to 2.30pm daily, Monday through to Saturday, with occasional duty shifts of 36 consecutive hours to cover the evening and night between two work-days.

Doctors, especially house officers, almost never start work at 7.45am precisely, but earlier than that. And we are never done by 2.30pm. We were never paid for going in earlier than 7.45am, and never expected to be. But we were paid for working after 2.30pm and now we are not going to be, though they still expect us to do the work for free. Many of us stay on routinely until 6pm to finish our duties with patients, signing out next to the clock-off time.

As from last Saturday, we are to sign next to the already-printed time of 2.30pm, even if we leave later than that.

This is already creating havoc among all the employees at the general hospital. The system will eventually be implemented for all the staff not just doctors.