A man who ran away from a ward in St Vincent de Paul home for the elderly last Tuesday did so due to a lack of staff, according to the nurses’ union. It said the latest incident confirms what the union has long been saying: that the shortage of nurses is jeopardising the safety of patients. The man, 83-year-old Karmenu Fino is still missing. He was last seen in Luqa on Tuesday afternoon. An internal investigation has been launched to look into why the man managed to escape from the home but according to the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, there was only one nurse in that ward at the time of his escape. MUMN president Paul Pace said in a statement that the ward from where Fino escaped hosts 35 residents and should be manned by a minimum of two nurses but, due to a chronic lack of nurses, on the day of the incident only one nurse was assigned to this ward. And the nurse was from the reliever pool and not one who habitually works in the ward. He said the union was expecting the home’s management to take disciplinary action against the nurse as they usually did rather than take the necessary remedial measures to address endemic problems once and for all. The nurses' complement,...