A change in the law will see some 70 non-EU trained nurses added to the public health sector after they had to work as carers for months.
The move comes amid repeated calls to address the nurse shortage at hospitals and health clinics.
The Times of Malta reported last week that nurses not trained in EU countries have not been allowed to work as nurses for almost a year pending changes to the registration process.
Instead, they have been working as carers, sources said.
In comments to Times of Malta, Health Minister Chris Fearne confirmed that a legal notice, due to be published in “less than two months” would enable the Nursing and Midwifery Council to accept applicants irrespective of where they had received training.
“We expect that once this process starts there will be some 70 nurses joining our workforce,” Mr Fearne said.
Pressed to say why it has taken so long for the necessary amendments to the current registration process to be approved, even though the government was on the record admitting there are serious staff shortages, Mr Fearne skirted the question, insisting instead that the council is “autonomous” and it was only last month that its president approached the...
