The director-general for health has been ordered to pay €1,108.20 in compensation after being found responsible for an incident at Mt Carmel Hospital where an elderly man was seriously injured in a fall.

The incident happened on May 24, 2016 and the man, Enrico Borg, died the following January.

His heirs instituted proceedings against the director-general, holding him responsible for the incident and the subsequent death and demanding compensation.

They claimed that Mr Borg has sought assistance so that he could walk out of his ward to a room where smoking was allowed. Since no assistance was available, he got up on his own, but fell to the floor when a handrail he rested on came off the wall. His injuries were compounded when he was immediately moved and put on a wheelchair. 

The hospital authorities contested that version, claiming that Mr Borg fell as he got out of bed.  The staff could not help him before he got out of bed because they were helping other patients.

In considering the evidence, the court, presided by Mr Justice Wenzu Mintoff, said that independently of whether Mr Borg fell because the handrail gave way or while he was getting out of bed, the fact of the matter was that Mr Borg was supposed to be under level one supervision, meaning that a nurse should have been allocated to him round the clock. But there were five patients in the ward needing a high level of supervision, when there were only four employees.

“In circumstances where a ward having vulnerable patients was left all night with fewer members of staff than it was supposed to have, the consequences could be serious both for the staff and the patients,” the court said

The court, therefore, found that administrative shortcomings had caused the incident.

The court, however, found no link between the incident and Mr Borg’s subsequent demise. It found no wrongdoing by the staff in the immediate aftermath of the incident. 

The court ordered the director-general to pay compensation of €1,108.20 covering costs for medical care and accommodation in a care home until Mr Borg’s death.