The MUMN nurses' union said today that a report by Health Commissioner Charles Messina had confirmed its call for new work practices by doctors at the Emergency and Admissions Department and the need to increase hospital beds at Mater Dei Hospital.

The union said it had long been saying that the hospital needs another 300 beds.

It said that the authorities need to cut down on repetitive and time-consuming work, such as that it takes four doctors to decide to admit a patient to hospital.

The union also welcomed a report by the Auditor-General who, it said, had confirmed its longstanding complaint that the government did not even have a centralised list of pending operations since such lists are only kept in the private diaries of the consultants, giving them the prerogative to decide who should be operated first.

The auditor-general had also rightly complained about management issues contributing to the backlog of operations, the MUMN observed.