A task force is set up to tackle bed shortage

The hospital’s serious bed shortage will be addressed by a task force being set up to cope with the increasing demand on health services, the Health Ministry said yesterday.

The task force, to be made up of representatives from the health authorities and trade unions, will look into the situation where patients are being treated in Mater Dei Hospital’s corridors.

The decision was taken yesterday during a meeting held between representatives of the ministry, the health department, the Malta Medical Association, the General Workers’ Union and Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin.

The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses boycotted the meeting over a disagreement on the way the government is handling the situation.

However, the union is still being invited to be part of the task force, the ministry and other unions said in a joint statement.

The state hospital has been plagued by bed shortages ever since it opened its doors four years ago. The overcrowding was captured in footage obtained by The Times last week showing more than 20 patients lining the corridor near the emergency department’s Area 2.

Last year, 7,500 people were treated in corridors. The situation gets worse in the cold winter months when the flu and infections are common.

Last year, 7,500 people were treated in corridors

Over the past weeks the government decided to add two or three beds in the 11 medical and surgical wards to try and tackle overcrowding. The MUMN objected to this and threatened industrial action. The union said the rooms were not equipped to deal with more than one patient.

The union and the government then agreed that only one extra bed would be placed in each of the medical and surgical wards. This is a temporary measure until a new ward is opened later on this year.

The MAM criticised this agreement and filed a judicial protest holding the hospital and health authorities responsible for any harm done to patients’ health.

The doctors, who are responsible for patients, pointed out that the government had initially agreed to increase the number of beds in the wards from 24 to 26 or 27. As a result of the change of heart, a number of seriously ill patients were being left in corridors.

To compound matters, last week the union refused to extend a temporary agreement, reached with the government, to take 21 social cases from Mater Dei to St Vincent de Paul. The union has been insisting it was time for government to find long-term solutions rather than have overworked nurses.

In a statement issued yesterday before the meeting, the MUMN said it would not be attending as it disagreed with the manner in which the government was dealing with the situation.

The union criticised the government for the “irrational, unilateral decisions” to increase beds at Mater Dei Hospital, St Vincent de Paul’s Residence and Karin Grech Hospital.

Despite the increase in patients, the number of nurses remained the same and nurses were overworked, it said.

The union also said the health authorities were crippling the primary healthcare services by asking nurses who work in health centres to move to new wards at Karin Grech Hospital.