38 patients waiting for bed at Mater Dei emergency department due to lack of beds, ENU charges

The ENU revealed that today, 25 patients were admitted to Area 2, which was part of the emergency department, but was not a ward and had only nine cubicles “as there were no beds available in the hospital”.

Another 13 patients were also waiting for a bed in Area 1 of the emergency department, which was the acute area. “The corridor of area one had to be improvised as a ward since there was no beds available in the hospital; needless to say this is not safe for the patients,” ENU President Joe Zammit insisted.

These patients who were admitted to Area 2 had “no adequate basic hygiene facilities since only 1 bathroom is available and this has no shower,” the ENU lamented.

Privacy was “also lacking due to the fact that more than 1 patient is placed in 1 cubicle,” it insisted.  Moreover, food was not “adequately provided, with a patient only getting a sandwich for lunch,” the ENU charged.

This situation was “unacceptable since this practice is both unsafe and unethical for those patients who are admitted to hospital, those waiting to be seen in the Emergency Department, and nurses who work in the Department,” Zammit concluded