Eye surgery patients recover in TV room

Forget about having a rest after a minor eye operation for lack of beds at Mater Dei Hospital mean that recovering patients have to wait in a TV room until they are well enough to go home later that day.

According to ophthalmic surgeon Franco Mercieca, part of a pantry has been converted into a sitting room where patients wait before going for surgery and when returning from the theatre.

The president of the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, Paul Pace, said patients waited in the television room attached to the patients' pantry before being transferred to the operating theatre. There was no privacy and no separating curtains between patients. Nurses had to take patients' particulars there, with no confidentiality.

"Pantries are being used regularly in various departments. It is very normal for patients to wait in the pantry before being taken up to surgery, even if they are not day cases, in the hope that a bed will be found for them after the operation is finished," he said.

The improvisation in the Ophthalmic Department had to be made after what was meant to be a 70-bed Day Care Unit was turned into another ward as the hospital authorities face a shortage of beds.

"We had planned to use the Day Care Unit but, since this was turned into another ward, we had to make other plans," Mr Mercieca said.

He said the vast majority of eye operations were done as day surgery. Since the department's number of beds dropped from 25 in St Luke's Hospital to 10 in Mater Dei Hospital, they had to find alternative space where to keep patients.

The health authorities were asked about the situation on Friday afternoon but no response was forthcoming by the time of writing yesterday.