By the end of this year the bedstock at Mater Dei Hospital will have increased by a total of 56, with 68 more expected to have become available by the end of next year, Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia said in Parliament.

This kind of progress was helping to close the “festering wound” of patients being treated in corridors, he added. But it was still not enough to achieve the final target of zero beds in corridors.

Dr Farrugia was answering a question by opposition health spokesman Claudio Grech about whether the situation at the Day Care Unit was back to normal following its attempted extension with a tent just outside. The tent had been taken down immediately following a snap decision by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

The minister reminded that the tent had been meant to temporarily increase bed availability in anticipation of the winter peak of influenza cases. In contrast, under the previous administration the DCU had been used throughout the year for cases other than day-care.

Under the PN there had not even been a protocol for winter needs, but there was one now.

Following the removal of the tent, the hospital management had placed 52 beds in a utility area which maintenance staff had made ready in just two days. By the end of this month there would have been 23 more beds gained.

Drawing contrasts with the numbers of patients in corridors in previous years, Dr Farrugia said there had been 1,700 between January and February in 2012, 800 in 2013 and just 324 in January/February this year. But even that smaller number was not considered good enough.

The minister revealed that the Nationalist government had actually planned a tent for the St Vincent de Paule residence. Opposition MP Mario Galea, who used to be responsible for old people’s homes at Cabinet level, said he had no knowledge of such plans. Dr Farrugia said this was contained in the SVDP report for 2012.