Last phase of Mater Dei staff training set to start

Training sessions at Mater Dei Hospital for over 300 hospital staff are scheduled to start next Monday, marking the beginning of the last training phase for employees.

This comes hot on the heels of a practice session held at the new hospital on Thursday when the migration planning team and senior St Luke's Hospital personnel evaluated and assessed the training methods.

The chosen staff members - who will be trained in their special areas over the two-week training scheme - will then be passing on the information to their colleagues. The training sessions will be held in fully-equipped wards and the outpatients department and include hands-on training on the different types of engineering systems and medical equipment that will be used in the new hospital the government is determined to inaugurate this July.

A spokesman for the Foundation for Medical Services explained that the upcoming training sessions will focus mainly on familiarising staff with the generic engineering systems, including the nurse call, fire alarms, emergency power back-ups and overhead bed panels.

Once the training sessions are over, the migration team and the heads of department will work together to come up with operational guidelines for the various wards and departments. These will include guidance notes on both the equipment and the hospital engineering systems. Detailed briefing notes have been prepared to assist the staff in their day-to-day work once the hospital opens.

Meanwhile, more than 100 different pieces of equipment - including a neo-natal ventilator, monitors and syringe pumps - were delivered to St Luke's Hospital to enable training during day-to-day hospital operations.

The spokesman said all hospital staff will receive training, ranging from the detailed training for the selected "super users" by the manufacturers of the equipment to induction for all staff members.

The first phase of training started in May 2002, with the St Luke's Staff Information Programme, consisting of visits to Mater Dei Hospital. An information leaflet was handed out to each of the 3,400-odd staff members who visited the hospital. Later on during the first phase other health workers - including those working at other hospitals and health centres - were invited to visit the hospital.

Phase two, which took place between April and December last year, was described as an integral part of the migration process, and included a second visit to the new hospital with a guided tour and a more detailed overview to acquaint staff with the new systems. At the same time, consultant surgeons, physicians and line managers of the various hospital departments visited their sections to familiarise themselves with the layout, equipment and furniture.