Pre-Operative Assessment clinic receiving some 60 patients daily

The recently launched Pre-Operative Assessment clinic at Mater Dei hospital is already receiving some 60 patients a day, health minister Chris Fearne said during a press conference today. 

Fearne explained that the total of operations carried out throughout 2015 had reached 60,000 in the public health sector, with 85% of them carried out at Mater Dei. 

“This year we already have indications of a 6% increase,” Fearne said, adding that although some 15% if the operations in question are on an emergency basis, the vast majority are electives surgeries, emphasising the need to increase efficiency in the sector.

Fearne said that prior to the clinics, launched in February, patients were often admitted into hospital for tests one day prior to the actual operation. 

“Besides creating anxiety in the patient, this process also means that patients end up taking up a bed space at the hospital as they wait for the operation to take place,” he said, adding that some 250 beds were taken up with people waiting for operations on a daily basis under the system. 

“Furthermore if tests show that further operations or treatments are necessary for the surgery to be effective, the planned procedure doesn't always take place, leading to the patient being sent home and the slot being lost.” 

He explained that patients could be sent back home until the operation takes place without the need to take up a bed and ensuring that procedures are more effective. 

“Patients are normally admitted into one of the 14 clinics in the unit some seven days before the operation to ensure that the teats are effective