The I-Go Aid Foundation has lashed out at “shameful” comments made by Paul Pace, president of the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, that Mater Dei Hospital is too crowded and unprepared for more patients.
You have to be here to realise how bad the situation is. For every 50 injured people we see 15 dead
The criticism comes after 14 more Libyans seriously injured in the fighting in Sirte and two journalists were brought to Malta for treatment on Tuesday.
Mario Debono, one of the founders of the Malta-based NGO I-Go Aid, which is involved in the operation, said Mr Pace had no shame.
“These are some of the most grievously wounded people and if they spent any more time in a plane they would have died. We are really making Malta proud this time, helping these young people, many of them civilians caught up in the conflict,” he told The Times in a phone call from Libya.
“Is it possible that in a hospital like ours we can’t take care of 14 patients at this critical moment? You have to be here to realise how bad the situation is. For every 50 injured people we see 15 dead,” he added.
In fact, while many other patients are being taken to other countries or hospitals in Tripoli and Benghazi, the best option for some of the worst wounded remains Malta.
Mr Debono said the fighting in Sirte was extremely tough.
“There are many mercenaries... not untrained Africans but extremely well-trained, professionally-equipped soldiers from places like Serbia. They know they are fighting with their backs against the wall so they are giving their all. They are protecting something very big,” he said, insinuating that Muammar Gaddafi could be hiding there.
Mr Pace issued the press statement on Tuesday saying Malta was not in a position to support any influx of patients.
“The government has to keep in mind the welfare of the nation and not resort to decisions just to please the international community,” he said, adding that Maltese patients were being left on stretchers instead of beds and nursed in hospital corridors.
“MUMN believes bigger countries with bigger health care facilities are to address such problems. In fact countries such as the US have huge hospital ships which can take up more than 900 patients and are even better equipped than Mater Dei Hospital.”
The union said it would support nurses who refused to nurse patients in corridors as if they were working in third world countries.
“This statement is being issued in the light that certain Maltese politicians tend to see foreign affairs as being more important for their own personal interest and therefore would not be capable of exposing the huge limitations which the health sector in Malta is passing through to the detriment of all Maltese who need such an essential service.”