Patients at Mater Dei Hospital are being treated in corridors “all year round”, the nurses’ union has charged, with corridors being given names “as a cover up”.
Nurses are bearing the brunt of shortcomings in the healthcare system – MUMN“The situation of treating patients in corridors in Mater Dei is now all year-round while at Mount Carmel Hospital there are daily cases of patients being provided a bed in the evening.
“In the Gozo General Hospital, beds in the corridor do occasionally exist but are limited due to union directives,” Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN) president Paul Pace said. He made the comments in a statement marking International Nurses’ Day, celebrated on Sunday.
Mr Pace insisted in the statement that the recent years’ drastic increase in population “is not helping at all”, arguing that it would be unwise for the government to consider that the three hospitals have “sufficient beds to cater for the needs of the population”.
“Is investment in additional beds being made in these three hospitals? The reply is a big ‘no’. Mater Dei corridors are given names to cover up this situation, while Mount Carmel is literally falling to pieces due to poor investment over the years,” he said.
“The Gozo hospital is barely coping with providing services to the local population let alone with medical tourism.”
While acknowledging that Malta’s health care system provides “a very good service”, accessible by all the population since it is one of the few systems in the world that is free, Mr Pace pointed out that it was the nurses who had to bear the brunt of various shortcomings.
Drastic increase in population is not helping at all
The sheer lack of nursing staff in all local health institutions, the inadequate number of student nurses, the exodus from the nursing profession, and the poor conditions of nurses in the wards are just some of the factors which nurses here face on a daily basis, the union head insisted.
“To be fair and just, the same problems can be found in most countries across the world but it does not justify that this distress is also found locally,” Mr Pace went on.
In recent weeks, the nurses’ union had repeatedly threatened action after flagging a series of shortcomings in the various state hospitals.
In April, the union requested time frames on the works being carried out Mount Carmel, insisting nurses and patients there were struggling as a result of the run-down premises.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, Times of Malta revealed that the only physiotherapy department on the island was also in need of upgrading, with the only treadmill there not working in months. Last Tuesday, shortages at the Intensive Therapy Unit prompted the union to again threaten action.
claire.caruana@timesofmalta.com