Nurses in Gozo have been directed by their union not to admit patients for elective surgery in the female general ward as patients would end up in corridors following surgery.

In a statement this morning, the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN) said the standard of care in corridors as well as patients’ health and safety was not of an acceptable standard.

The MUMN said work standards in the female general ward were worse than in Florence Nightingale's days with just a few nurses seeing to a large number patients.

The ward, it said, was the only one at the Gozo Hospital that took in medical, orthopedic and surgical female patients with half of its occupants classified as social cases or elderly patients waiting to be placed in residential homes.

The ward currently had 43 beds instead of 33, with beds in corridors extending up to the main door. As a result, female patients had to be placed in the male general ward.

The union also appealed to the Health Division to address the bed blocking problem caused by elderly at Gozo General Hospital by refurbishing empty wards.