Updated: 12 patients wait for 18 hours for a bed

The Emergency Nurses’ Union has denied that the situation at the Mater Dei Accident & Emergency Department is returning to normal.

"Contrary to what was said by (Health Minister Joseph) Cassar last week, after the problem about bed shortage in Mater Dei Hospital came out in public, that the situation at the A&E department was getting back to normal, today Area 2 is closed again as a ward and 12 patients had to wait for a bed for more than 18 hours on a stretcher."

The union said that unless the minister faced the reality of the problem and was willing to accept suggestions from the Union, the problem would never improve.

Earlier today, the Labour Party said today that regular overcrowding at the Emergency and Admissions Ward of Mater Dei Hospital was a consequence of the government's decision not to build an additional, and planned, floor at Mater Dei, its failure to engage more nurses and its failure to invest in health centres.

Party social policy spokesman Michael Farrugia said that the fact that overcrowding was a regular occurrence showed that something was fundamentally wrong. Were in not for the hospital staff, who did their best to keep patients comfortable, the situation would be worse.

He criticised the government for having opened a hospital which had fewer beds than the one it replaced, and for having allowed the shortage of nurses to grow to some 700 vacant positions.

Management by crisis, such as by transferring patients to other facilities, were not enough and the government needed to take concrete action to solve this problem, Dr Farrugia said.