The elderly, the sick and the vulnerable have been hit worst by the continuing power outages, with nurses at Mt Carmel Hospital even needing to use torches on their mobile phones to assist patients after generators failed to kick in during a power cut, PN MPs said on Monday.
What happened at Mt Carmel Hospital was a disgrace and posed a risk for both the patients and the healthcare professionals, PN mental health spokesperson Ian Vassallo said at a press conference.
Vassallo spoke with the shadow minister for energy Mark Anthony Sammut and health spokesperson Stephen Spiteri at a press conference marking a week since the country was first hit by repeated, widespread power cuts.
They said the electricity interruptions were symptomatic of the government's disregard for the sick and vulnerable people and proved that the administration had no real plan or vision for sustainable economic growth. The population had been allowed to grow rapidly without a parallel strengthening of the infrastructure, and the result was now all too evident.
'Worst hit are the poor and the vulnerable'
The worst hit victims of the current situation were the elderly, the sick, the vulnerable, people suffering from medical conditions necessitating electric-powered medical equipment and people who were struggling to make ends meet, the MPs said.
Some people had to throw away expensive medicines because they could not use their fridges. Similarly, families who were already struggling to buy food had to throw away what they had.
Many people who needed to use medical equipment round the clock to treat their respiratory illnesses, renal diseases or other medical conditions had to find a way to cope while their devices sat there, switched off, Spiteri said.
Elderly people who used air mattresses had to try and stay comfortable without them.
In Gozo, some generators at the general hospital were malfunctioning, leaving patients in some wards without airconditioning, he said.
Elderly people were being admitted to hospital for conditions caused by the excessive heat, which further burdened the already overloaded health system.
'Power has not been restored to all areas'
Sammut pointed out that while Enemalta said on Sunday that power had been restored to all areas, residents of Rabat, Dingli, Qawra, Xemxija, Żabbar, Żejtun, parts of Gżira and Mosta, San Ġwann, Msida, Mdina, Sliema, Fgura, Santa Venera, Ħamrun, Marsa, St Paul's Bay, Naxxar, Marsascala and Attard suffered blackouts for several hours. Perhaps this was the new normal that Robert Abela and (energy minister) Miriam Dalli expected people to get used to, he said.
"This is a result of this government's bad economic policy. It's not the intense heat that's the problem, but the increase in demand for electricity caused by the intense heat," Sammut said.
"And it's not just the electricity grid that's struggling to keep up with demand. So is the sewage system, the health system and the roads. And people are struggling to keep up with inflation.
"People are seeing all of this in the darkness of the power cuts and feeling it in the sweat running down their bodies."
Sammut said the government was failing to address the issues facing the country as it struggled with internal divisions and U-turns.
He said the PN was grateful to the Enemalta workers deployed to repair the faults on the electricity grid.