Updated 7.15p.m.

The government insisted once more this evening that Mater Dei Hospital has an adequate supply of pillows, denying claims by PL health spokesman Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca.

The government regretted Ms Coleiro-Preca's attitude towards the hospital management. It said that while on previous occasions, the Labour spokesman contacted the hospital management, she didn't in this case and instead made unsubstantiated claims.

In the morning, Ms Coleiro Preca said that when she made the claim last week, the Health Ministry summoned the press to a store at St Luke's Hospital - not Mater Dei - to insist that there were enough pillows to go around.

That, she said, begged the question as to how several patients who requested pillows at Mater Dei had instead been given pyjamas or bed sheets to put under their heads instead of pillows.

This, she said, was what the ministry should investigate. If pillows were available in stores, then they should be distributed to the wards, Ms Coleiro-Preca said.

The PL published a photo to back its claims.