The health authorities have dismissed claims that patients with COVID-19 symptoms are mixing with others in government health centres after Times of Malta received such reports about the facility in Mosta.

Claims were made on Monday that those identified as having symptoms associated with coronavirus were still made to wait alongside others who were in the clear.

The claims included a photo that purportedly showed a patient with potential COVID symptoms seated in a waiting area with other patients. 

But health authorities dismissed those claims, saying two other, separate, waiting areas had been set up at the Mosta clinic to ensure patients were kept separate.

The rules are clear, authorities said: patients have to wait in separate sections depending on the symptoms they are exhibiting.

“One section is designated for patients who do not display any COVID-related symptoms while another section is for patients who show symptoms which can be either of common cold, gastroenteritis or COVID and which are seen by a GP in a different clinic, as an added precaution,” a health ministry spokesperson said.

If patients visit a healthcare centre with a positive COVID-19 result, she said, they are “directed immediately” towards an isolation room and not left in the waiting areas.

In cases where there are space limitations, the spokesperson said, and where it is not possible for patients to wait in different areas, “a perspex separating the waiting room should be in place to distance one section from another”.

“In each waiting area, chairs are kept two metres apart and are cleaned according to the infection control policies every two hours.”

No issues reported at other health centres

Medical sources with information on the situation in the Gżira, Floriana and Qormi health centres said they were not aware of issues with mixing of patients in these facilities.

Throughout the pandemic, those visiting a health centre are asked a series of simple questions to ensure any patients who might have COVID-19 do not mix with others.

Automated temperature checks are also carried out. The questions seek to ascertain if a patient has recently had a fever, been abroad or had any symptoms related to the virus.

In recent weeks, a row over who should carry out the triaging – the process of sorting people based on their need for medical treatment – erupted, with nurses ordered by their union to withhold non-essential services.

The industrial action was suspended last week.