Patients needing constant observation at Mount Carmel Hospital are not always getting it due to shortage of staff, the Times of Malta has learnt.
Sources said that “level one supervision”, which is prescribed to patients at risk of harming themselves, is often unavailable due to staff shortages.
On Tuesday, this newspaper revealed that the single room where the 45-year-old Briton hanged himself in Mount Carmel’s forensic unit, which falls under the Home Affairs Ministry, had a CCTV camera installed, with another placed in the hallway outside.
In answer to questions, the Parliamentary Secretariat for health said that in wards that fall under its remit, patients at high risk are observed all the time by an assigned nurse.
Meanwhile, in Parliament on Monday Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela said he had commissioned an internal inquiry.
But a list of questions sent to Mr Abela on Tuesday have remained unanswered.
Mr Abela was asked the reason why an independent inquiry was not ordered.
Home Affairs Shadow Minister Beppe Fenech Adami had heavily criticised the composition of the board of inquiry, which is made up of Mcast head of human resources Josephine Abdilla and includes the head of detention services, Colonel Mario Schembri, and the chief executive of the Agency for the Welfare of Asylum Seekers, Mario Schembri.
The Opposition had insisted that it was not prudent of the government to ask the head of detention services to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of a person in detention.
Moreover, Colonel Schembri lacked security clearance, the PN said. In 2013, a court ruled that the Armed Forces of Malta had not violated his human rights when it rejected him for promotion, without giving him a hearing, after he had failed to receive security clearance.
This newspaper also asked the minister whether the internal inquiry report and that to be drafted by the Board of Visitors of Detained Persons – which was requested to evaluate the conditions at Mount Carmel Hospital’s forensic unit and at the lock-up of the police headquarters – would be made public.
Police sources said CCTV cameras were useless without the manpower to ensure they were being monitored all the time.
The minister was also asked how the manpower issue would be addressed.