Beds at Mater Dei

Mater Dei Hospital is to have 804 in-patient beds against the 838 at St Luke's Hospital but the number of day beds at the new hospital will be 107 against 63 at St Luke's, Health Minister Louis Deguara said yesterday.

Replying to a parliamentary question by Labour MP Adrian Vassallo, Dr Deguara said that at Mater Dei there were expected to be 215 beds for general medicine (244 at St Luke's); 144 for general surgery (160); 37 for cardiac services (34); 83 for paediatrics (70); 68 for orthopaedics (66); 20 for critical care (18); 24 for infectious diseases (22); 94 for obstetrics and gynae (128); 18 for NSU (12); 36 for urology (26); 18 for ENT (24); 12 for burns and plastics (six); 10 for ophthalmic (17); 15 for the psychiatric ward (11); and 10 for the observation ward (none).

The minister said that since some services at St Luke's, such as physiotherapy and prosthetics would not be moved to Mater Dei for the moment, a final decision on the number of beds at the new hospital has not yet been taken.