A new trade union representing nurses at the Accident and Emergency Department of Mater Dei Hospital, complained today that a shortage of space meant that patients also had to be treated in the corridors yesterday.
It said that patients were admitted to Area 2, which is part of the Accident and Emergency Department but is not a ward and has only nine cubicles, as there were no beds available in the hospital.
Another 13 patients were also waiting for a bed in the Area 1 (acute area).
The corridor of Area 1 had to be improvised as a ward since there were no beds available in the hospital.
"Needless to say this is not safe for the patients," the Emergency Nurses' Union said.
On the normal day both Area 1and Area 2 are used to see patients who require emergency medical care.
"These patients who are admitted to Area 2 have no adequate basic hygiene facilities since only one bathroom
is available and this has no shower. Privacy is also lacking due to the fact that more than one patient is placed in each cubicle. Food is not adequately provided, with patients only getting a sandwich for lunch," the union said.
"This situation is unacceptable since this practice is both unsafe and unethical for those patients who are 'admitted' to hospital, those waiting to be seen in the Emergency Department, and nurses who work in the Department," the union added.
ENU president John Zammit said there had been patients who had been waiting in the accident and emergency ward for nine hours on stretchers in the emergency ward waiting for a bed in the wards.
"This situation, unfortunately, is not uncommon," Mr Zammit said.
"They have no privacy at all, even though we do what we can when doctors call.
"We have had occasions when patients arrived in an ambulance and we had no place where to put the stretcher - there is chaos, god knows what will happen in a national emergency," Mr Zammit said.
"The situation is unacceptable, we sometimes have had 40 patients on stretchers instead of beds, for up to 14 hours, also crowding the corridors. God help us when winter starts."
He said the union had made proposals over where more beds could be made available for admissions, thus freeing the emergency ward.
Unfortunately, he said, nothing had been done.