Some hospital staff prefer larger ambulances

The fact that some hospital staff prefer to work in larger ambulances, which have more elbow room and are more comfortable, has prompted the Union Haddiema Maghqudin to write to the Health Department.

The UHM said in a statement it had requested the department to verify whether all ambulances used at casualty were equipped for emergencies.

The union said it posed the question because some staff at the emergency section in hospital refused to accompany certain ambulance drivers in particular ambulances.

A spokesman for the health department said when contacted that all 17 ambulances used for emergency work were equipped for emergencies.

"It is a fact that some hospital staff prefer to work in larger ambulances, which have more elbow room and are more comfortable to work in.

"But this does not mean that the smaller ambulances are not adequately equipped. Some roads in Valletta and Qrendi, just to mention two places, are too narrow for the bigger ambulances. This does not mean that patients who live there do not get a decent and well equipped ambulance if they need one," the spokesman said.

A UHM spokesman said the current practice was for drivers to be assigned to a particular ambulance. This meant that the drivers of the larger vehicles ended up doing the majority of emergency work while others just performed transport duties.