The influx of patients hospitalised with the flu has so far been lower than in recent years, with Mater Dei Hospital not yet making use of all its temporary in-patient areas, the head of the nurses’ union said.

On Wednesday, Times of Malta reported that temporary in-patient areas have been set up at Mater Dei as the hospital prepares for the annual rise in the number of patients suffering from the winter flu.

But the head of the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, Paul Pace, said it seemed that this year the numbers would be lower than usual.

The “big shock” to the health care system brought about by usual spikes in the number of those requiring treatment had not yet been felt.

While not excluding that patient numbers could suddenly go up in the coming days, Mr Pace said that medical staff had yet to face the scenario they had handled in previous years. There has not yet been the need to make use of areas in the hospital that had been set up in the past to cope with the increase in numbers, he explained.

In recent years, nurses have struggled to cope with the influx during this time of year, with no increases in staff to make up for it. By mid-January last year, at a time when Mater Dei was also dealing with a swine flu outbreak, there were no empty beds left inside the hospital.

Asked whether the staff shortage had now been resolved, Mr Pace said the opposite was true, as the complement of nurses had continued to diminish in recent months.

It has been a frequent lament of the union of the past few years: demand for healthcare was growing but the nursing population was declining.

“The numbers have, unfortunately, continued to dwindle. During the Christmas period, for instance, leave was a problem and many nurses couldn’t even take time off because of the shortages,” Mr Pace said.

The union head fears the situation will only get worse as more hospitals open up on the island.