Updated: Adds reaction by the Medical Association - The newly set up Emergency Nurses’ Union has expressed concern about the situation in the Accident & Emergency Department of Mater Dei Hospital earlier today (Monday).
"At 7am there were 31 patients waiting for a bed. Most of these patients had been waiting for a bed on a stretcher for more than 24 hours in the middle of a corridor in Area 2, which is part of the Accident & Emergency Department itself," the union said.
"At 6.45am one of these vulnerable patients went into cardiac arrest, which means that immediate care including a CPR had to be started in the middle of such area surrounded by other patients without any privacy for the patient. The patient was then transferred to one of the resuscitation rooms where A&E nurses & doctors, and nurses working in Area 2 during the night of Sunday 14th took part in this resuscitation."
The union said it was calling on the Health Department to take the necessary actions to avoid such situations which were putting patients’ health and staff safety at risk.
'DOCTORS NOT TO BLAME' - MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
Meanwhile, the Medical Association rejected claims that general practitioners were making unnecessary referrals to Mater Dei, compounding the bed shortage problem.
"Statistics show that more than half of attendances at Accident and Emergency are self referred, meaning that they had not been seen by a family doctor. While this is understandable for major emergencies, it is this problem that results in unnecessary congestion and bottlenecks," the association said.
"Every medical practitioner decides independently using his professional judgment. In the practice of Medicine sometimes even minor complaints need urgent referral to hospital. The opposite may also apply; patients with subjectively major complaints sometimes do not need referral to hospital and can be safely managed in the community.
"Every medical practitioner is taught from his early days of medical school, that if the situation is unclear, one should refer for further investigation rather than take unnecessary risks with patients’ health. While a number of these patients will inevitably not have medical problems, this does not mean that referral was not indicated."
The association said it was completely unacceptable for anyone to put the blame of administrative problems at the Accident and Emergency department on family doctors. It invited the health authorities to tackle this problem seriously without blaming doctors.