A recently introduced tracking system at Mater Dei Hospital’s Emergency Department has helped to reduce patients’ waiting times “very satisfactorily”.

Waiting times were down to an average of four hours whereas before the wait would drag on for much longer, Parliamentary Secretary Chris Fearne said in reply to questions by Mario Galea (PN).

Mr Galea asked how a directive from the nurses’ union had affected the system. Mr Fearne said the tracking system was about performance, not patients, and should not be affected by the directive.

Commenting on the number of people self-referring to the Emergency Department, he said it was understandable that those with real emergencies would immediately go to hospital.

The fact that the previous administration had sought to cut costs by keeping health centres closed after certain times in the evenings and on weekends helped to explain previous trends.

But health centres’ opening hours had now been extended.