Maltese hospitals discriminate against drug abusers in terms of the care they are given, according to a consultant psychiatrist.
Anthony Dimech, a consultant addiction psychiatrist at Mount Carmel Hospital, works with psychiatric patients who have a drug use problem and finds it “very difficult” to have patients admitted to certain wards when they need it.
“When these people have to be admitted to hospital because of psychiatric problems – even severe ones – they are discriminated against, because they are not admitted into the ward where they can be treated in the most appropriate environment,” Dr Dimech complained.
He raised the issue during a conference on addictions, held by the Malta Association of Psychiatric Nurses. Drug users are not allowed in the mixed admission unit at Mount Carmel Hospital or the short stay psychiatric unit at Mater Dei Hospital, while in other wards only a very limited number of substance abuse patients are allowed, according to Dr Dimech.
While in Mount Carmel there was a dual diagnosis unit, which specifically dealt with psychiatric patients with a drug problem, the unit had only eight beds and was often full, he said.
This number, Dr Dimech said, was not enough, particularly because “it is estimated that 50 per cent of those with severe mental illness have at least one substance use problem.”
“The way our mental health services are designed does not address the fact that substance use disorders are on the rise,” he said, adding that however, those with a bad drinking problem are still admitted into these wards – “and rightly so”.
Even though patients with drug use problems were still treated, their opportunity of care in the right environment was not equal to the rest, he added.
Putting a depressed person in a seclusion ward, which was one of the wards drug users could be admitted to, could actually be detrimental to his situation.
“I am still waiting for the first individual to sue the hospital for this discriminatory practice,” Dr Dimech said, adding there had also been cases where nurses threatened industrial action if they had drug addicts on their wards.
Reacting, an association representative said it endorsed the stand taken by nurses, as “heroin addicts should not be nursed in wards where dementia patients are being treated... if patients are reviewed more often, there would be more space for different kinds of patients,” the nurse said. Another nurse said: “We can’t just look at patients from the medical point of view... we have to provide a safe environment for our staff.”
Dr Dimech agreed, but said that assuming beforehand that a drug addict would be more dangerous was discriminatory and stigmatising, and patients should be treated as dangerous only when there was a history of dangerous behaviour.
“It is no secret Malta has a drug problem that is similar to other western countries. Mental health and addiction services should reflect this reality”.
When contacted for a reaction, the Health Ministry said it was not in a position to reply.