Government will buy 10 beds in a privately owned home for the elderly in Gozo in an effort to alleviate the burden on the hospital that has been experiencing overcrowding due to an increase in social cases.

Addressing a news conference at Gozo General Hospital, Parliamentary Secretary for the Elderly Justyne Caruana said that her secretariat bought the beds, through a private-public-partnership, from Villa San Lawrenz.

The 10 elderly people, who were currently at the Gozo hospital, will start being moved on Monday.

Dr Caruana said the government acknowledged that there was a problem at the hospital due to social problems that were on the increase. This problem had recently been raised by the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses that said the bed shortage situation at the Gozo hospital was escalating.

Precious bed space was being occupied by elderly patients and social cases, leaving no beds for acutely ill patients or surgical patients, the union said.

Dr Caruana said government was aware of the problems in Gozo where there was currently no state-run home for the elderly on an island that had an ageing population.

The government was working to address this. Last week, she said, it announced the start of respite services in Gozo through which relatives could leave an elderly person at Villa San Lawrenz for up to three weeks to get some rest from being full time carers.

Last year, Gozo Minister Anton Refalo announced that the St Joseph Home in Għajnsielem was going to be rented out by the Gozo Church to the government for use as an old people’s home.

It is to be converted into a home for the elderly and administered by the ministry, while the Gozo church will provide religious services including two masses every day. The home will have 70 rooms and 140 beds with views of Fort Chambray, ix-Xatt l-Aħmar, Comino and the countryside.