Mater Dei’s Accident and Emergency Department (A&E) should be able to cope more efficiently with patients in a year’s time according to a five-point plan launched today by the government.

The plan, which according to Parliamentary Secretary Chris Fearne will cost up to €1.2 million, includes additional staff and is aimed at reducing waiting time for patients from the current six to seven hours average to under four hours in line with international benchmarks.

The plan includes a physical re-engineering of the department, a new layout, a separate new sub-department to cater exclusively for children, a separate area for GP patients who do not normally need to be given assistance at the Emergency Department’s core areas, a quicker medical first contact point to assess the situation on an incoming patient more quickly and the introduction of new IT tools for staff including quicker results of blood tests.

Mr Fearne said that the plan would be implemented in stages over the next 12 months. 

Health Minister Konrad Mizzi said that the reform at the emergency department was one of four key-areas which the government was working on in the health sector.

The others were reducing operation waiting lists, improve the situation of out of stock medicines and tackling the lack of beds at Mater Dei.