UPDATED - The Health Department said today that the Emergency Department is treating some 300 patients per day because of a severe outbreak of influenza.
It apologised to patients and their relatives after 18 patients were yesterday transferred from Mater Dei to private facilities and thanked the medical and transport staff for their services and cooperation.
Earlier today The Times reported that public and private hospitals were chock-a-block yesterday, struggling with a wave of patients struck by what the Health Department described as a “severe outbreak of influenza”.
The situation reached a point where the management of Mater Dei had to turn to the St James Group for help with bed space, only to be told they too were full to capacity.
“Both St James’ hospitals are full. We have patients waiting on chairs in emergency for people to be discharged from the wards to use the room directly afterwards,” Maria Bugeja, director of St James Hospital Group said.
She admitted the situation was not uncommon at this time of the year. However, the situation has been made worse by the crowding at Mater Dei.
The situation was so bad in Mater Dei hospital’s Emergency Department yesterday that doctors and nurses ran out of stretchers on which to see new patients as they were being used up by people waiting in the corridors for a bed in the wards, the president of the Emergency Nurses’ Union, John Zammit told The Times.
“The situation keeps getting worse. I think tonight we will have no place where to put patients,” he said, pointing out that two additional corridors were opened since Tuesday but even these had already been filled-up.
The Health Department last night issued a warning about the severe outbreak of influenza that hit the islands over the past weeks.
The department said there was no room for panic but urged people to be cautious, warning the flu could lead to problems among vulnerable people, including the elderly and those suffering from chronic conditions like heart failure and asthma.
This situation comes after the Emergency Nurses’ Union on Tuesday gave the health authorities until next week to sort out the overcrowding in hospital corridors, which last year saw two patients receive cardio-pulmonary resuscitation in full view of those around them.
“There is no more place in casualty for us to put these patients in,” Mr Zammit said before going to hospital for night duty, dreading the long shift ahead.
Since the New Year, the hospital witnessed an increased influx of patients, as is known to happen during the winter period.
Influenza-like illness trebled over the past 15 days, the Health Department said, pointing out that chest infections were behind the increase in admissions in the acute care hospital.
There were over 200 admissions of very sick patients between New Year’s Eve and 4 p.m. on Tuesday with another 45 people admitted during the night.
Mr Zammit said the union met up with the hospital management and the Health Department yesterday to discuss a way forward.
The union proposed that ward space be used more efficiently and estimated that each ward could take an extra four beds in the rooms. It also singled out a large store room, which, it said, was not being used much and could fit another 30 patients. Mr Zammit said if beds reserved for tomorrow’s operations would be used up, “which is likely”, the surgeries would have to be cancelled.
The union also asked for a riskassessment of the department and for the infection control unit to prepare a report of the situation in casualty.
Health Services director general John Cachia said the Health Department was making use of all the bed space it could source elsewhere in homes and discharging patients who could be sent back to their own homes safely.
However, Mr Zammit said many patients were being re-admitted in the evening, after being discharged from hospital in the morning.
As a long-term solution to address the problem, the department was looking into increasing long-term beds in other hospitals, to transfer such cases from Mater Dei. The department pointed out, however, that this would depend on the availability of nurses and carers.
The hospital has long suffered from bed-shortage problems. Soon after opening its doors to the public, the issue of having fewer beds than St Luke’s Hospital (Mater Dei’s predecessor) soon surfaced, leaving new admissions waiting around in Emergency Department corridors for a bed in the wards.
The problem of “bed-blockers” has long been known to be behind the problem as patients waiting for long-term care take up acute care beds while waiting to be transferred to places like St Vincent de Paul and Karen Grech Hospital. The wait can be a lengthy one as doctors and nurses have pointed out it is not unheard of for patients to wait a month at Mater Dei before being transferred elsewhere for long-term care.
(More stories from The Times in the News section)