The doctors’ association has slammed the decision taken by the health department and the nurses’ union to tackle overcrowding by adding one bed to several wards, insisting this would deprive 50 patients of proper treatment.
It was better to have two patients in a single room rather than leaving one in a corridor
The Medical Association of Malta (MAM) condemned the “scandalous” agreement reached between the Health Division and the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN), saying it would leave some 50 other patients incorridors without proper nursing treatment.
Over the past weeks Mater Dei Hospital experienced overcrowding as many patients were admitted as a result of the cold snap.
In an attempt to tackle the problem, the health authorities decided to increase the number of beds in medical and surgical wards by two or three. The union disagreed with this, saying the wards were not equipped to deal with extra patients and nurses were not coping with the workload.
On Thursday, they agreed only one extra bed would be placed in each of the hospital’s medical and surgical wards.
Yesterday, MAM said the implementation of this agreement may lead to “serious danger” for patients.
As a result of the decision to add only one extra bed, any other seriously ill medical patients would be treated in corridors, it said.
The MUMN said MAM had insisted on an increase of patients in wards so that the consultants’ patients would be grouped in one place.
If the doctors’ association was really concerned about patients in corridors, the MUMN said, it should instruct its members to call at the hospital on Sundays to discharge patients and make room for new ones.
In a separate statement, MAM said that on Sundays, consultants were treating patients admittedthe previous day, but to date,none of these doctors had been remunerated.
The health department said it was better to accommodate two patients in a single room rather than leaving patients waiting for a bed in a corridor. It insisted that no patients would be moved out of their rooms to be placed in a corridor.
The department said it had agreed to keep only one extra bed in the wards because there had not been any patients in the emergency corridor over the past few days.
In the meantime, it will keep looking for longer-term solutions, such as the 16-bed post-emergency ward which will soon be set up adjacent to the emergency department.