Reports that Mater Dei Hospital is gearing up to receive Libyans injured in ongoing clashes in Tripoli have prompted the nurses’ union to issue a stern warning to the government.

“Our nursing staff is already strained to the limit," the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses said in a statement. 

"This will result in nursing patients who will very probably be infected with multi-resistant organisms and deployed in corridors where high-security risks for the nurses involved will be present. This will have an impact on the whole service in Mater Dei Hospital,” the MUMN said.

The Health Ministry has told the MUMN that no such plans are in the pipeline.

However, the MUMN noted that the indications on the ground did not tally with such assurances. Apart from media reports, concerns that Libyan patients could be on their way to Mater Dei Hospital tallied with feedback received from nurses, the union said.

Full occupancy at hospital

Mater Dei Hospital is already running at 100 per cent bed occupancy, with nurses struggling to cope with the sheer number of patients in both wards as well as corridors, the MUMN said.

Read: No Maltese requests for evacuation from Libya

The union noted that despite the Health Minister’s denial that such plans were in the pipeline, it was still receiving “worrying reports” from its members that preparations were underway to receive Libyan patients.

“We are not against the care for the Libyan patients, but such extra work load will have drastic effects not just on the nursing staff working with such patients but also an impact on the care given in the whole hospital,” the MUMN said.

Malta's only acute hospital could not cope with the additional workload and should not be used as a political game, the union said. 

MUMN warned that  if the Minister would not keep  his word it would not hesitate to take whatever actions necessary to protect its members and patients from what is described as “unethical and irresponsible decisions.”