Updated 7.08 pm with Health Ministry statement.

Elective operations at Mater Dei Hospital may have to be postponed on Thursday and the following days as the hospital deals with an influx of patients which is well above the norm, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday evening.

It said the sharp increase in patients was a result of the recent heawave. People whose surgery is postponed will be informed and given a new appointment. 

Earlier, Times of Malta had reported how doctors and nurses described the hospital as being "flooded"  with patients requiring medical assistance due to heat stroke and other heat-related issues in the past days

The hospital’s emergency department received 102 admissions between Tuesday and Wednesday, sources said.

“It’s a record. Casualty is full. The emergency department is totally overloaded. We have opened up corridors and areas never used before for patients. Some of these spots aren’t even used at the height of influenza season,” a nursing source said.

A doctor confirmed the difficult situation.

“The hospital is full up. It’s inundated with heat-related admissions, many of them vulnerable patients, he said. “Heatwaves always lead to heat-related admissions but this time round things were exacerbated by power cuts.” 

Times of Malta spoke to medical professionals following repeated reports about the hospital being inundated with patients negatively impacted by the days-long heatwave and power cuts in the past days.

Record temperatures for July, coupled with prolonged electricity blackouts, made for a miserable week for several households, with people left struggling to cool themselves in the stifling heat.

Health authorities said on Tuesday that four people died of heat-related conditions over the weekend. Data related to deaths on Monday and Tuesday has yet to be made available.

But medical sources say that number, published by the Superintendence of Public Health, is most likely the tip of the iceberg.

Dozens of people requiring treatment did not die, they said, and even in cases when a person died after suffering from heat-related ailments, they may not appear on official statistics, as people with chronic conditions often have that listed as the cause of death on their death certificates.

Nurses working at Mater Dei Hospital’s emergency department said they are struggling to cope with the influx of patients. Many – especially elderly ones – are showing up with symptoms consistent with dehyrdration or hyperthermia, they said.

“I’ve never seen it like this during summer,” one told Times of Malta.

A patient who took a son to Mater Dei’s emergency department for an ailment not related to the heat echoed that.

“I have never seen such total chaos.  The waiting area was packed solid, as well as the three corridors leading to the entrance of A&E,” she said. “Patients had been waiting for hours and hours, some of them clearly at death’s door. The doctors and nurses were doing their utmost but they simply couldn’t cope.  My heart goes out to them.”

Another patient said he saw nurses setting up large fans in the emergency area’s waiting area, as the building’s air conditioning was not sufficiently cooling many patients who were waiting for treatment.

The influx of patients adds to an already miserable week for hospital staff, who on Monday night had to endure 40 minutes without power, when hospital generators failed to kick in following an interruption in power supply.

Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech on Wednesday morning published a photo of patients lying on hospital beds crammed in a hospital ward.

“That was Mater Dei Hospital’s emergency department last night,” Grech wrote. “This is another sector suffering due to a lack of planning and poor decisions taken by Robert Abela.”

The hospital’s Intensive Treatment Unit, or ITU, is also feeling the strain: sources said that 19 of its 20 beds are currently occupied. Three of those patients are youths who were admitted due to drug overdoses, exacerbated by heat stroke.

Spillover at private hospitals

Overcrowding at Mater Dei led to a spillover in private hospitals: doctor Anthony Buttigieg said that St James Hospital was “inundated with patients who had been to Mater Dei Hospital emergency and had given up.”

“Not because the staff were lazy or inefficient, but from the simple fact they were overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of those suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration,” Buttigieg wrote in a Facebook post that went on to accuse government ministers of being “incompetent” and “selfish”.

People urged to take precautions

The Health Ministry in its statement reiterated its appeal for people to take precautions because of the high temperatures and call a doctor should they suffer symptoms and feel ill.

Particularly vulnerable, it said, were those aged over 75,  the very young, those who suffer chronic respiratory and cardiac conditions, those with mental health problems, people running a fever as a result of infection, drug and alcohol abusers, those with mobility problems,  and those who are physically active such as manual workers and those engaged in sports.  

People were urged to avoid direct sun between 11am and 4pm, stay in cool places, drink water, avoid alcohol, coffee, tea and caffeine drinks, wear light clothing and avoid excessive physical activity in the warmest parts of the day.