The number of social cases at Mater Dei Hospital has increased to 140 leading to a crisis, the Medical Association of Malta said this morning.

It said in a statement that practically all emergency admissions last week spilled over into corridors and into the operating theatre recovery wards.

While the hospital management did their best to manage the situation, doctors, nurses and all others were hard pressed to cope with the increased workload and the difficult conditions.

MAM said that although this was a problem in the winter months, it was a new a new phenomenon in the middle of summer.

It said the hospital administration attributed the increase in admissions to the increased number of planned operations. There were also a significant number of frail elderly patients who developed medical problems because of the extreme heat.

However, the major factor was the large number of patients who are accommodated at Mater Dei Hospital while awaiting transfer to homes for the elderly and rehabilitation, MAM said, adding there were currently 140 patients at Mater Dei hospital who did not need acute care but had to be kept there as they had nowhere to go.

“While in the past this rarely went over 60, over the last year this has crept up to 140 to take up 60 per cent of beds available for acute medical care, mainly because of lack of planning and investment in the geriatric sector.”

As people in Malta were living longer, hospitals and homes for the elderly were full and could not cope with demand. This problem needed a long term solution and measures had to be taken to improve services for the elderly in their community.

MAM appealed to the health authorities to give priority to the elderly sector, and focus on the immediate needs of patients by investing and developing the care of the elderly to meet the demands of the population.