The Medical Association of Malta has filed a judicial protest against the Minister of Health and the management of Mater Dei Hospital, warning that new arrangements to deal with hospital overcrowding were 'irresponsible' and endangered patient care.

The association, which represents doctors, said that the hospital management had originally decided to add two or three beds in every ward and therefore the number of beds was to increase from 24 to to 26 or 27 as a temporary measure until a new ward was opened.

But following an agreement with the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, this decision was changed and only one additional bed would be placed in each ward.

As a result, the MAM said, some seriously ill people, possibly in danger of dying, would not have a bed in the medical wards and would have to be kept in the corridor at the Emergency Department.

The situation was so acute, the MAM said, that some patients had even died in the corridors of Mater Dei.

The association said the medical consultants, who were responsible for patient care, were making it clear through this protest that the decision taken in agreement with the MUMN put patients in manifest danger.

The association said it was holding the minister, the Chief Medical Officer and the hospital's CEO responsible for any harm which may be caused to patients as a result of the fact that they were being kept in the corridors and not in properly equipped wards. It insisted that the original arrangement would have solved the current problem since there was adequate space in the medical wards.