'Patients in stretchers inside emergency ward', Emergency Nurses Union says

The Emergency Nurses Union said the main areas of the emergency department at Mater Dei hospital have been blocked with more than 40 patients waiting on stretchers in corridors.

In the latest salvo against overcrowding at Mater Dei by a workers’ union, the ENU said it had warned the health department during the last three months that overcrowding would escalate in winter and that prompt action was required.

Last week the Malta Union of Midvives and Nurses said lack of bed space inside Mater Dei was prompting doctors inside the maternity ward to induce labour unnecessarily so as to free up beds.

The ENU said the situation was “shameful”. “This situation is causing more stress on the A&E nursing staff and the Union is not excluding any directives which might be issued to their members in the coming days if the health department keeps ignoring the situation and ENU’s plea to do something.”

ENU president John Zammit said the union was holding the Health Department management responsible if something happens to patients who have been seen and treated immediately but then wait endlessly for a bed in the wards.

“The lack of proper planning in the state of the art hospital is only causing pain and suffering to the patients and increased stress and demotivation to the staff who try to do everything they can to make these patients as comftable as possible.”