Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1523590
2 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 JULY 2024 NEWS KURT SANSONE ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt Mater Dei was already struggling Over the past 10 years, government failed to live up to its commitments to invest in Mater Dei Hospital to increase bed space. Instead it banked on the corrupt Steward hospitals deal to ease the pressure, something that never materialised. Now, Malta's only general hospital is struggling to cope under the weight of higher demand from a population boom and a surge of COVID cases.. MATER Dei Hospital was al- ready struggling with limited bed space but is now buckling under pressure caused by a surge of COVID cases, Malta- Today has learnt. The situation is made more complicated by scores of social cases involving patients who do not require clinical care but have nowhere to go. The precarious situation is having a knock-on effect on the Emergency Department where patients are experienc- ing lengthy waiting times that can reach 12 hours. Several healthcare workers have told MaltaToday that COVID cases requiring hos- pitalisation have surged thus blocking beds in the medical wards. The Health Ministry has con- firmed that there were 66 pa- tients with COVID recovering at Mater Dei up to Friday af- ternoon. However, healthcare workers said the number was much higher at the beginning of the week. "The current strain of COV- ID is less severe but is very in- fectious and after mass events, especially over the weekend, we are seeing a surge of pa- tients with COVID, who for some reason or another re- quire hospitalisation," a nurse who spoke on condition of an- onymity said. The latest group of COVID variants, collectively called FLiRT, is responsible for high- er infection rates across sever- al countries. Concerts, parties, festas and the election count- ing hall have all provided fer- tile ground for COVID infec- tions to spread over the past month. The situation has been de- scribed by healthcare profes- sionals as akin to the influen- za season during the winter months when hospital strug- gles to keep up with patients requiring treatment for chest and respiratory tract infec- tions. "COVID patients have to be kept isolated, which limits ward space for other patients and this creates a bed shortage in a situation where the hos- pital is already trying to cope with higher demand from the exponential increase in popu- lation over the past few years," the nurse said. A 12-hour wait in emergency A patient who required emer- gency care over the past cou- ple of weeks recounted to this newspaper the interminable time it took for him to be treat- ed and then allocated a ward bed. "After triage, I was in the waiting area for almost four hours before a doctor could see me and commence tests and treatment. It then took several more hours for the test results to come out and be an- alysed by a doctor, who even- tually recommended hospitali- sation. I was finally allocated a bed more than 12 hours after I first stepped into the Emer- gency Department," the male patient told MaltaToday. His story is not unique with other patients reporting lengthy waiting times also at health centres before being referred to hospital. A second nurse confirmed the deterio- rating situation at health cen- tres. "A four to five-hour waiting time is increasingly becoming commonplace at health cen- tres, which for many people are the first point of contact when requiring emergency care," the nurse said. Social cases blocking beds Another healthcare work- er told MaltaToday part of the problem at Mater Dei al- so stems from scores of social cases that are occupying beds because there are no alterna- tive places for them. "These are patients who would have been admitted for a medical condition and after being treated require rehabili- tation or continuous care out- side a clinical environment but have nowhere to go," they said. The healthcare worker noted that most of these cases con- cern elderly people. "It seems there are not enough places in old people's homes to take them in," they said. But another medical profes- sional insisted the situation at Mater Dei has long been com- ing and blamed lack of invest- ment for the current predica- ment. They said the hospital did not expand in line with the population explosion of the past decade. "The population has in- creased rapidly because of an influx of foreign workers and this has caused a strain on resources. To make matters worse government did not invest in the necessary infra- structure to increase beds be- cause it banked on the Vitals deal, which failed to deliver," the doctor said. Government seeks private sector support to ease emer- gency waiting times Meanwhile, in comments to MaltaToday, the Health Min- istry said it has given direc- tions for "seminal changes" in the assessment and flow of patients who turn up at Mater Dei's Emergency Department in a bid to reduce waiting time. "These will be based on first contact with a decision-mak- ing specialist who has the skills to expedite appropriate patient care expertly and expeditious- ly, and emergency patient care on a named-consultant mod- el," the ministry said. But government will also be seeking to rope in the private sector to ease the pressure on Mater Dei's Emergency De- partment. "A request for the participa- tion of all assets in the coun- try - primary healthcare and