Updated at 2.15pm, adds statement by Żminijietna

No new patients will be treated at the physiotherapy department at St Luke’s Hospital as union directives come into force after Steward Health Care failed to provide upgraded timelines, Times of Malta has learnt.

Times of Malta is informed that, under the directives, which come into effect on Thursday, physiotherapists working at the outpatients’ department are not to see new patients while those who undergo elective orthopaedic surgery will not be seen as from next week. 

Unfixed light fittings at St Luke’s Hospital.Unfixed light fittings at St Luke’s Hospital.

The physiotherapists will also not assist in clinics outside the St Luke’s Hospital premises while exercise classes at the amputee rehab unit will not be held.

Only new patients referred from the wards with fractures and those referred to the neuro rehab unit will be treated as usual.

The directives, which are expected to affect about 300 patients every day, come just weeks after Times of Malta reported that the department was in such a bad state that the physiotherapists were struggling to treat patients.

Situated at St Luke’s Hospital and run by Steward Health Care, the US company that took over the 30-year government concession to manage three hospitals, the outpatient physiotherapy department is the only one of its kind on the island.

Read: Physio equipment, service very good, Fearne claims

The department had not seen an upgrade in years, with physiotherapists being forced to make the best of what was available, including having to use a corridor riddled with broken tiles during sessions with patients learning to walk again, Times of Malta was told. 

The only treadmill available in the department had been out of order for months.

In comments to this newspaper on Wednesday, the president of the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, Paul Pace, said timelines had been sought a number of times.

“Time stood still from the day the public-private partnership (PPP) was launched, with the consequence that the physiotherapy department looks more like a museum than a modern functioning facility,” he noted.

He said that about 75,000 patients were treated at the department every year but the clinic lacked space and equipment to cater for the needs and challenges of a modern rehabilitation facility.

Most services meant to be offered at the department were “pending” due to lack poor infrastructure, Mr Pace said, adding that the department was in such a run-down state that water seeped in whenever it rained. 

Sources who spoke to Times of Malta on condition of anonymity said that, especially during bad storms, the department often flooded, with staff and patients shuffling around trying not to slip. Staff had often also been forced to use buckets to capture some of the water seeping in from the ceiling, the sources said.

“With the commencement of the PPP, the whole service provided by the physiotherapy department deteriorated to a point where patients are seen in the main corridors of St Luke’s, exposed to all sorts of temperatures.

“Most of the equipment is literally obsolete and no new additional machinery was bought, putting more strain on the clinicians. The place is debilitated in all spheres,” Mr Pace commented.

Acknowledging that timelines outlining the promised works had yet to be provided by Steward, Mr Pace noted that while his union, through its members, had provided “alternative areas” that could be used within the department, the hospital operator still did not have “any definite plans or timelines for the refurbishment and expansion of said department”.

Both the physiotherapists and patients “deserve better”, he insisted.

Contacted for a reaction following the directives, a spokeswoman said Steward had been in “constant contact” with the nursing union.

She noted that this was the case on an ongoing basis with the view of “finding a mutually agreeable way forward”. 

Żminijietna – Voice of the Left reacts

In a reaction on Thursday, Żminijietna – Voice of the Left, said that the government should revise the health policy "with regard to the PPP". 

"What is happening at St Luke's Hospital, managed by Steward Health Care, the American company that took over the management of the hospital for 30 years, is a confirmation that public-private partnerships are not the ideal model to improve the quality of the services provided."

With regards to working conditions, the leftist organisation Żminijietna expressed solidarity with the physiotherapy department, where workers were subject to inferior working conditions, and a work environment that lacked healthcare facilities. 

The group valled on the government to address the issues, arguing that the health care system should remain "under public control". 

 

 

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