Inquiry into 'ambulance death'

An inquiry has been ordered into the death of a man that has been linked to an ambulance delay which occurred during migration to Mater Dei hospital.

The claim was made in yesterday's Malta Today newspaper.

The government yesterday denied that the migration process from St Luke's Hospital had led to a shortage of ambulances.

The Mater Dei Hospital authorities hired six ambulances and six lifter vans so that patients would be transferred from one hospital to the other.

Ambulances scheduled for emergencies were not used to transfer patients to Mater Dei.

According to records kept at the hospital, in the case referred to by Malta Today the ambulance took 23 minutes to arrive on the spot and not 40 as claimed by the newspaper.