Update 3 | PM orders removal of tent outside Mater Dei's day care unit

The Prime Minister has ordered the removal of the tent and marquee set up outside the day care unit at Mater Dei Hospital.

Workers are now pulling down the marquee.

Government sources told MaltaToday that Joseph Muscat had not been informed that a tent would be set up in the car park in front of the day care unit to be used as a reception.

"The Prime Minister gave an order for it to be removed the minute he got to know," the sources said.

It is not clear whether the decision to use the reception as a 'treatment room' will also be reversed.

Earlier

The health ministry is setting up a tent for an outdoor reception centre at Mater Dei Hospital, after a decision was taken to fill the day care unit's reception area with beds.

A spokesperson for the health ministry confirmed that the reception area will now be used as a treatment area, in preparation for the influenza season.

"Mater Dei always experiences an influx of patients between January and February due to influenza cases," the spokesman said. "To mitigate such a scenario, a decision has been taken to temporarily use the reception area as a treatment room."

The spokesperson said the reception was a large enough area to be utilised without blocking access to other areas.

The decision sparked concern amongst nurses and hospital workers who witnessed workers setting up the tent structure for the reception centre.

MaltaToday spoke to various people on site, who confirmed that the day care unit's reception area will be hosting patients.

The move has angered both nurses and MUMN officials who only came to know of the decision after a tent and a marquee were being set up.

"MUMN was not aware of such tents and neither where the nurses working at the day surgery unit," MUMN president Paul Pace.

In a statement, Pace said the union's officials were forced to leave a function being organised by the Labour Party to attend urgently to the angry calls from the nurses working at the day surgery unit.

"People will now be told to wait in tents while the reception area, which is not an area to nurse patients, will now start to accommodate more patients on stretchers," Pace said.

"So besides the corridors with patients on stretchers, the reception areas in Mater Dei Hospital will also be having patients on stretchers. Next decision might be the roof or the car park."

The MUMN said long-standing problems at MDH were simply being shifted to corridors and reception areas instead of being properly addressed.

"It is a pity since this is causing more patient suffering and with the patients are the nurses," Pace said.

The MUMN said that promises of stakeholders being involved in the decision-making process were "simply nice words and in reality fake".

According to the union, nurses at the day surgery were angry at how they were being treated by the management, disappointed and de-motivated.

"Nurses are being treated in shameful manner with all hospital policies being broken due to bed shortages. MUMN is issuing directives without any notice as per the civil service agreement and registering a dispute in MDH."

Overcrowding at Mater Dei Hospital has been a constant problem since the hospital started functioning. In 2012, private hospital St Philip's Hospital was considered as an alternative to Mater Dei's hospital bed capacity problem. Negotiations had started by the previous administration and the hospital owners, but the then Labour Opposition had strongly objected to the idea.

The proposed agreement would have seen the government pay €850,000 per year with an option to buy the 100-bed hospital for €12.4 million from the third year.