Updated: Beds back in the corridors at Mater Dei - PL spokesman

Updated - adds government reaction

Measures taken by the health department last week to solve the bed shortage problem at Mater Dei were just a quick fix which had not resolved the situation, the PL's health spokesman Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca said.

Addressing a news conference this afternoon, Dr Coleiro-Preca and that this morning there were 50 patients in corridors at Mater Dei's emergency area and another 24 in area 2, which had been built to take six people.

Extra beds were placed in wards last week in a bid to solve the shortage problem, she said.

Ms Coleiro-Preca said the government needed to come clean and investigate its lack of planning and foresight and not resort to quick fixes. The current situation in hospital, she said, was like a scene out of a war movie.

She said that between 2007 and 2008, the government had spoken about a convalescence hospital at Karin Grech Hospital, but instead set up rehabilitation wards.

However, these were primarily focused on the elderly and there were no adequate rehabilitation facilities for younger adults.

The minister had to stop taking people for a ride, she said.

Replying to questions, Ms  Coleiro-Preca said a Labour government would place absolute priority on primary health care which this government had discarded. If a good primary health care plan was in place and regional health centres worked well there would not be such problems, she said.

She said there was an eight-month long waiting list for MRI and a 1.5 year waiting list for EMG. This was because the government had neglected to renew a contract and was relying on a single part timer.

Dr Coleiro-Preca said that the government knew that there was an aging population so why had it not planned for it?

The Labour Party, she said, would bring in family doctors and local pharmacists on board to reform primary health care. There was no point in breaking things and then trying to fix them, she said.

MORE PEOPLE CALLING AT MATER DEI

The Health Ministry in a reply said that the number of people going to Mater Dei had risen substantially. In the first two weeks of February, 6,238 had called at the hospital’s emergency department, an increase of 413 over the same two weeks last year. Most of this increase was a result of the cold weather.

The ministry said Ms Coleiro-Preca had failed to acknowledge the results being achieved by the hospital workers and professions. Among these results, was the fact that last year,   44,000 operations were performed, 11,000 more than the last full year at St Luke’s.

More than half a million people had called at the Outpatients Department, twice the number at St Luke’s.

Over the past year, nine million services were given at Mater Dei and more than six million blood tests were carried out. 

The ministry said the government was improving community services and 630 more beds had been added in homes for the elderly, easing pressure more social cases at Mater Dei.