'No operation cancelled' despite overcrowding and bed shortages - MUMN

One hundred operations were carried out in the past 24 hours even though no beds were available, MUMN president Paul Pace said.

In an open letter to the Health Minister to thanik the nurses for their work and commitment, Pace said that no single operation was cancelled, despite the overcrowding reported in Mater Dei Hospital and the shortage of beds.

“100 operations were performed today. With no beds available, the patients were taken straight to the operating theatre and discharged also from the operating theatre. This was the second time that such a feat was done this winter.”

With no beds available, all corridors, wards, various holding bays and even the Paediatric corridor were full of medical patients.

“Nurses are doing miracles when the number of nurses is so few to cope with the demands of such a huge number of acutely ill patients. The nurses worked against all odds in nursing practice, with the burden being shared by all the nurses working in wards and corridors. The entire nation should be grateful to Mater Dei’s nurses,” Pace said.

Pace said nurses working in the operating theatres and the day surgery unit worked "against all odds" in nursing practise. He said, that such a sacrifice was also burdened by all the nurses working in various wards and corridors of hospital "who are working on a daily basis with less than half the actual nursing compliment".

But the union’s president said this excessive pressure could lead to human errors or even mental breakdown, and thus he appealed to the Health Minister to tackle the problem.

“Such pressures and excessive workloads are not to continue whenever Mater Dei has no beds available. Nor should nurses be taken for granted. Such excessive demands should be taken on frequent basis.”

Pace concluded that without taking into consideration the extra beds, the hospital is already 200 nurses short at the very least.