Discharged patients have 'no place to go' after Mater Dei treatment - Cassar

Speaking during parliament yesterday evening, Health Minister Joe Cassar admitted to problem regarding the wait endured by patients waiting for beds or to be examined.

When asked by Opposition spokesman Anthony Agius Decelis if a study has been conducted regarding bed sores resulting from waiting on stretchers for hours, Cassar was quick to reply that although no official study has been conducted, special mattresses will be provided to avoid bed sores.

Cassar responded to a second question on whether there have been patients who have gone to the hospital emergency ward when they could have been easily attended to in local health centres during the first half of 2011, by saying that statistics have not yet been released.

When cross-examined on whether any of these had been turned away or examined by doctors, Cassar said no one had ever been turned away and all were examined by doctors but where given third priority if patients were not in possession of doctor referrals or were not urgent.

A third question posed by Agius Decelis referred to the treatment and dignity of patients left waiting for hours in corridors took centre-stage as Cassar simply replied, “All patients are treated with dignity and given a bed.”

Cassar’s reply was attacked by Labour MP Anthony Zammit who asked whether it was dignified or respectful for patients to be left in corridors who lacked privacy and had “to do their business in front of other patients and visitors” amidst others who were dying, or when patients suffering from infections or fevers are placed in the same rooms.

Cassar admitted that there was no dignity in such a thing but although they are left waiting for several hours, they are each given a bed once available. However, it is a complex problem related to other issues such as the fact that there are between 50 to 80 patients kept in the hospital on a daily basis because there are no health care alternatives available to them. One of the major problems according to Cassar, is that there are relatives who do not accept those discharged and so are kept by the hospital in order to respect the patients’ dignity.