Mater Dei Hospital’s Emergency Department has been treating over 300 patients daily because of an outbreak of severe influenza, with cases more than trebling over the past month. The hospital has been stretched to breaking point and private facilities choked with influenza patients.
Surgical cases also risked having to be postponed as beds were needed for acute flu complication cases. Why does a hospital that has cost the taxpayer over €600 million come to this and what is wrong with the health system? The reasons are probably both hospital-related and planning-related.
In the case of the hospital there are probably three main problems: an insufficient number of doctors (especially junior doctors), an insufficient nurse complement and fewer beds, by at least 300, when compared to the old St Luke’s Hospital.
The first two problems could perhaps be tackled through improved working conditions and better deployment of hospital staff.
Hospital beds present a chronic problem that will manifest itself more frequently as the population continues to age. The public has often been told the hospital would need fewer beds because more day surgery would be carried out. But what about the patients who must, perforce, remain in hospital for several days when struck down by disease, as evinced by this flu outbreak? Pneumonias caused by the flu, along with other complications, are not “day cases”. Is it possible these situations were not planned for with the end result being that patients are left lying on stretchers in a “state-of-the-art” hospital and staff run out of stretchers while frantically searching for what beds they can lay their hands on to admit patients?
Another “explanation” given is that social cases, elderly without any carers, have no place to be transferred to readily from the hospital. Yet, we seem to forget that people used to be told there would be no social cases blocking beds at Mater Dei. Why is no one answerable for this sorry state of planning?
Emergency nurses have ended up having to seek new corridors to place patients in, on stretchers! It is hardly a situation becoming the top state hospital. The Department of Health is on record saying the flu could lead to problems among vulnerable people, including the elderly and those suffering from chronic conditions such as heart failure and asthma. That can only exacerbate an already catastrophic situation.
The flu situation could have been alleviated by encouraging more people to have the flu vaccine. True, “against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain”, with people coming up with all sorts of excuses not to take the vaccine, from side effects to outright conspiracy theories. However, a more determined, sustained and concerted effort might have encouraged more individuals to take the jab (which protects not only against seasonal flu but also against H1N1 swine flu). A small increase in the percentage vaccinated would have significantly reduced overcrowding at the hospital and saved on health expenditure. A small investment at the end of last summer in flu jab campaigns might have alleviated some of the current misery. (Judging by other publicity campaigns it does not seem funds are lacking!) The medical profession too has to shoulder some responsibility here.
The Health Department now speaks of having more long-term beds in other hospitals. Planning seems lacking. Who says prevention is always better than cure?