Adds government's reaction

Relatives of the elderly residents living at the Żejtun Home are claiming that the heating systems in place are not adequate to thoroughly heat up the building, resulting in carers and residents falling ill.

While during the day the home is not being properly heated, the residents are also claiming that cold air is coming out of the vents at night.

The home, which takes up to 204 residents, is government owned but run by CareMalta. Contacted by this newspaper, a spokeswoman for CareMalta confirmed that there have been some complaints recently regarding the heating situation.

According to the spokeswoman, the home’s management had ensured that the heating system was “working to its presently maximum capacity”.

According to the spokeswoman, the home’s management had ensured that the heating system was ‘working to its presently maximum capacity’

“There have also been a couple of instances where the particular temperature of individual rooms was not set properly, and now the situation is rectified,” the spokeswoman added.

Residents have also complained that the sheets supplied are too thin, resulting in the elderly not being warm enough, especially during the night. Regarding this complaint, the spokeswoman said that all the residents had been given the standard linen requirements.

Furthermore, additional blankets had been supplied to all the residents in the past few days as temperatures dropped lower than usual.

Last week, the Health Ministry issued statements urging people, the elderly in particular, to take steps to keep warm, as temperatures plummeted as low as five degrees Celsius over the weekend.

Health officials were concerned about the impact the cold could have on elderly citizens, encouraging them to make sure rooms were no colder than 21ºC during the day and 18ºC at night.

Government's reaction

A spokesman for the government said the government was operating according to contracts entered by previous administrations between 2000 and 2013 and which expired in 2028. 

According to these contract, the government had to ensure that the the contracts were followed by Care Malta and regular inspections were carried by an audit team to ensure the delivery of quality care services.

It was the government's priority to ensure quality services and it was in view of this that standards for elderly homes were introduced and a specific law was being discussed in Parliament to enforce these standards.

The government also had systems through which clients could forward their suggestions and lodge complaints. A freephone number, 8007 2367, was also purposely set up.