Expanding the community care service will help address the shortage of beds at Mater Dei Hospital and the government will be "assiduously working" on this concept, Social Policy Minister John Dalli said.

"We are not looking at temporary, stopgap solutions. The solution is providing more and better treatment and care within the community to alleviate the pressure on the hospital," he said.

The entire administration has to reorganise itself and people have to understand that they may not need to visit hospital every time they have an ailment.

Hospital medical administrator Frank Bartolo explained that one of the issues leading to the shortage of beds was long-term patients, mostly elderly, and this had to be addressed.

Mr Dalli, accompanied by his parliamentary secretaries - Joe Cassar for health and Mario Galea for the elderly - yesterday visited the hospital to begin the assessment process since the new Cabinet was sworn in last week.

The idea was to talk with all the parties involved in running the hospital, the administration and union employees to discuss the way forward.

"Starting from us politicians and including doctors, nurses and every employee, our main focus has to be the patient. We have to ensure patients who set foot in Mater Dei are provided with the best possible service and treatment in the shortest time possible," Mr Dalli insisted.

He stressed that his team's primary objective was to cut the hospital's waiting lists and ensure that if a person required an intervention it would take place as soon as possible.

Asked if the present situation to continue providing free health care was sustainable, Mr Dalli said the government's objective was clear: His job was to achieve this in a sustainable manner.

"I have never accepted exiting practices. When I do something I go in to improve it; I don't chew on what others have chewed but try to find new ways," he said. "If we all organise ourselves properly we can cut costs and become sustainable but we need the cooperation of everyone." Since the hospital migration from St Luke's Hospital to Mater Dei was finalised last November, the new hospital is bustling with activity with an average 50 patients a day passing through and another average of 30 being discharged. The hospital has a staff complement of nearly 4,000 and it managed to shed off the population of pigeons and feral cats.