Waiting lists of knee and hip replacement surgery, where patients face the longest delays, should be lowered further when the third orthopaedic theatre opens next month.
Health Minister Joe Cassar is hoping the theatre can be fully functional by September. The only stumbling block is human resources and all it requires is nine full-time nurses.
Achieving this is not as easy as it sounds since it is the nursing council, an autonomous body, that decides whether a person should receive a warrant; and some decisions can take months.
However, Dr Cassar is optimistic the shortage can be remedied with the new intake of graduate nurses over the coming weeks, coupled with its plan to employ up to 300 foreign nurses.
This recruitment drive had been frowned upon by the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses because of potential language barriers.
Dr Cassar was contacted in the light of a Mater Dei Hospital study carried out between February and May 2008, showing that 69 per cent of patients had to wait more than 24 hours for their trauma operation.
The reason for the delay in surgery among those who waited for more than 24 hours was lack of available theatre time in 223 patients (52 per cent), according to the study reported in The Times.
The audit - which was only released during a short presentation at the Malta Medical School Conference and has yet to be published - indicated that 26 per cent of available theatre time was spent in between cases.
The problem of delays should be alleviated once the third operating theatre is up and running. The situation is already improving and the rate of orthopaedic operations went up to 424 in May - the latest statistics recorded - compared with 339 operations during May 2009.
Figures seen by The Sunday Times show the overall number of operations carried out at Mater Dei continued to increase for the fifth month running, with a total of 3,718 surgical procedures in May; 255 more than April.
The majority of the operations in May, 84 per cent, were performed as electives, with 16 per cent as emergency procedures.
The major increase in the number of operations was mainly witnessed in the departments of ophthalmology (75 more operations in May compared with April and endoscopy (60 more surgical procedures).