Nurses working in wards considered to be overcrowded cannot guarantee they will offer the adequate level of care, the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses said yesterday.

The union expressed concern about the "precarious situation" patients recovered in St Luke's Hospital medical wards are facing.

Union secretary general Colin Galea described the situation in medical wards as worrisome, saying patients in beds in corridors are bereft of the dignity. Such patients would already be going through a psychological trauma because of their medical condition and this would be exacerbated because of the mediocre way in which they are treated, he said.

Mr Galea said this year overcrowding measures were not being taken to ease the problem.

When contacted, the hospital's human resources and administration director Mark Scicluna said the hospital had a policy that whenever there was a certain number of patients, surgical beds would be taken over and elective surgery would be curtailed.

Mr Scicluna said the hospital authorities understood that there were more demands on the staff, adding that this was a reflection of the seasonal influx in admissions.

He also pointed out that since St Luke's Hospital was the country's only acute hospital, it could not close its doors to patients.