Dialysis machines, used for hospital kidney treatment, can only be replaced or upgraded once a court decides on the appeal from a bidder for the tender.

In the meantime, no appointments have been cancelled or postponed, a spokeswoman for the Health Ministry told this newspaper.

The ministry was contacted after a social media user posted a complaint on the Facebook page Are You Being Served, claiming that some of the machines are developing faults that are beyond repair.

The man told this newspaper that he was concerned that the state of disrepair would get worse and patients had been urged by hospital staff to appeal to the authorities for help.

When contacted, the spokeswoman clarified that there are 32 machines at the Renal Unit at Mater Dei Hospital. These were bought over a number of years, with the latest purchase of five machines having been made last year.

The Health Ministry, she added, had committed funding for the replacement and upgrading of all 32 machines at Mater Dei as far back as the summer of 2015.

To this effect, a tender was issued in September of that same year. The adjudication process, which included a demo from three shortlisted companies, was concluded in mid-2016.

“Unfortunately, immediately after the closure of the adjudication process, the second shortlisted company started an appeal process which is currently in the Civil Courts.

“Once the Court decides, the Health Department will be able to proceed accordingly,” she added.

All the machines at Mater Dei’s Renal Unit had been validated for use, the spokeswoman said.

In the meantime, Mater Dei also employs a number of engineers who carry out maintenance work on all its equipment at scheduled intervals and who are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to respond to any failure.

Asked about patients’ dialysis appointments that had to be postponed because of a fault in these machines, the spokeswoman said that none had been cancelled or postponed due to circumstances originating at the hospital.