Nurses will no longer accept unattended patients in waiting rooms and ward kitchens, their union has warned.

The union appealed to people going to hospital for non-urgent operations to first phone or to go straight to customer care to reduce their waiting time.

Patients due to undergo non-urgent operations were being brought to Mater Dei Hospital at 7 a.m. when they would only be given a bed late in the afternoon, the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses said.

Such patients would have to wait in the reception area and the kitchens of various surgical wards on chairs, where no one could attend to their basic needs.

Any patient going to hospital for a check-up prior to an operation would also be sent to customer care, the union decided, insisting that wards were neither outpatient departments nor health centres.

The MUMN insisted with the management that such patients, as in “truly” state-of-the-art hospitals, should either call customer care to check whether a bed was vacant or else be sent to an admission lounge to wait comfortably while their needs were tended to.

“Unfortunately, some surgeons comply with regulations and send their patients to the pre-operative clinic, while others challenge hospital authorities and send them to have their check-up in the ward, which should not serve as an outpatient department.

“It is a pity that the hospital management feels impotent in front of this small number of surgeons and does not take steps to regulate the matter,” the union said.