Figures in a Mater Dei hospital report released by the Opposition earlier this week were “misinterpreted”, and overcrowding has decreased every year since 2012, according to health parliamentary secretary Chris Fearne.
Speaking to Times of Malta, Mr Fearne said figures showed that the number of patients housed in hospital corridors had decreased from 8118 in 2012 to 1458 this year.
The parliamentary secretary was responding to claims of “mismanagement” by shadow minister Claudette Buttigieg, who said the current level of overcrowding at the hospital was unprecedented in the summer months.
“It is normal to see a spike in the summer months,” Mr Fearne said of the current situation, pointing to the effects of the heat, the number of tourists and an increased number of accidents.
“In a few years, we will have an over-capacity of 10 to 15 per cent that will allow us to manage these spikes more effectively.”
Ms Buttigieg said last Tuesday that the Hospital Activity Report for the first half of the year showed that the increase in patients was not due to an increase in elective surgery, as had been claimed.
Every week, she said, the number of admissions exceeded the number of discharges by an average of 50. Only 16 per cent of admissions were for elective surgery.
Mr Fearne, however, said the analysis was “complete misinformation”. He pointed out that discharge figures did not include patients who die in hospital or who are transferred to another facility. These, he said, represented the large part of the disparity the Opposition had highlighted.
He added that, in her analysis, Ms Buttigieg had ignored day surgeries, also a form of elective. With these taken into account, a total of 22,743 elective surgeries were carried out this year – an increase of 16 per cent compared to 2012.
In a recorded statement, Mater Dei acting CEO Joseph Zarb Adami denied Ms Buttigieg’s claim that 451 patients were occupying beds at Mater Dei while awaiting long-term care. “I don’t know where she got the figure from,” Dr Zarb Adami said. “It’s true we’re inundated, but the number was never more than 120, and is currently less than 100. The figure makes no sense – 450 people would be half the hospital.”
Mr Fearne said the situation was being addressed in the short term through public-private partnerships. Yesterday, there were six people in the hospital corridors.
Meanwhile, plans to convert Karin Grech Hospital into a geriatric hospital and for St Luke’s to become a rehabilitation hospital would ease the strain in the long term, he said.