Patients will now be able to rate the quality of service at Mater Dei Hospital through a survey that can be filled in on bedside monitors.

The system would give hospital management a “real time picture” of the situation in the various wards and of patients’ concerns and needs, Health Minister Joseph Cassar said.

Standing by a patient’s bedside in Medical Ward 1, Dr Cassar pointed out how user-friendly the survey was.

This is the first time the hospital has an accessible survey to assess its work. In the past, studies were done on its performance but this initiative enables more regular monitoring to be done.

The hospital has drawn up two questionnaires, one for the general wards and another specifically for maternity wards.

The maternity ward survey addresses its specific services including the breastfeeding clinic.

Each has about 20 questions. Some deal with healthcare quality and include questions that rate patient satisfaction with doctors and nurses and how their pain was managed during their stay.

Other questions concerned hospital administration and touched upon hospitality and cleanliness, Dr Cassar said.

The survey is filled in anonymously through a freely accessible bedside touch-screen monitor.

Patients start by clicking on the ward they are in and, once filled, their replies are immediately fed into a central database that collates the information.

Dr Cassar said the survey now allowed Mater Dei Hospital to be compared to other hospitals in the EU.

Mater Dei CEO Joe Caruana said the information would be analysed every month. The aim was to take 15 samples from each ward per month.

The system was set up by international firm Cyber WebCreations and cost €2,600.