One of the machines at the new burns unit. Photo: Clifton Fenech/DOI

A specialised section for the treatment of acute burns was inaugurated at Mater Dei yesterday, six years after the hospital was opened.

Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia said the specialised section within the Burns and Plastics Unit had not been opened earlier due to mismanagement of hospital resources.

“This was dead space within the hospital and is an example of what mismanagement can lead to,” he said.

The new section, which consists of five beds including an isolation room, will be run by a complement of six doctors and a comprehensive nursing staff.

Dr Farrugia said the new section was the result of an ongoing consultation process with different units at Mater Dei and a direct result of his insistence on maintaining an office within the premises.

Section consultant Francis Darmanin said the specialised area would allow for the centralised treatment of acute burns and ease much of the pressure placed on other areas of the hospital that previously offered the treatment.

“Many burn victims were being treated in the outpatient section, which was a heavy burden on hospital resources,” Mr Darmanin said.

Mater Dei had treated dozens of burn victims during the Libyan uprising in 2011 and recently joined the Mediterranean Burns Council.

Mr Darmanin felt the hospital could become a centre of excellence for burn treatment across the Mediterranean.

Dedicating the new beds to the recent loss of cancer campaigner Helen Muscat, Mr Darmanin explained that the new section would also offer treatment during delicate stages of breast reconstruction therapy following mastectomies.

Another 32 beds have been added to the hospital this year but Dr Farrugia noted that this barely scraped the surface of the hospital’s bed shortage.

He said the ministry was aiming to add a further 68 beds by the end of 2015.