Former Prime Minister Dom Mintoff was admitted to hospital yesterday suffering from a chest infection and heart problems, but his daughter is optimistic he will recover and be discharged in the coming days.

“We’re very much hoping he’ll be back home within four or five days,” Yana Mintoff Bland told The Sunday Times last night.

Mater Dei Hospital released a medical update saying Mr Mintoff had been diagnosed with a “severe chest infection and heart failure”. The medical team responsible for his care also described his condition as “critical”.

However, his daughter is confident her 95-year-old father’s condition will soon stabilise.

Ms Mintoff Bland said her father had been conscious throughout, and had agreed to go to hospital.

“He’s well looked after. He was on antibiotics but he needed to have these taken intravenously. It’s a chest infection he cannot get rid of with oral antibiotics... I’ve been with him all the time and he’s been fine,” she said.

Mr Mintoff was last admitted to hospital in Gozo last October suffering from pneumonia. He was back home the same week.

In the past two years he has been in and out of hospital diagnosed with numerous conditions common among the elderly .

Mr Mintoff served as Prime Minister twice between 1956 and 1958 and from 1971 to 1984.