Mosta health centre refurbishment 'excluded' electric generator - MUMN

The newly refurbished health centre in Mosta operates without an electric generator which would provide electricity in case of a blackout.

According to the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, it is unconceivable that a health centre which operates on a 24-hour basis is not properly equipped.

“Can someone explain how a health centre which is used on a 24-hour basis does not have a generator?” MUMN president Paul Pace said, adding that the health centre had to resort to candles for light during last night's blackout.

Pace said both the Labour and Nationalist parties were to blame for the lack of proper planning.

“We live in a country where everything is politically interpreted… while this generator blunder was created by the Nationalist administration, it does not absolve the Labour administration from its failure to install one. Both administrations are to be held responsible,” he added.

MUMN said health centres offer an essential health service, equipped also to provide cardiac resuscitation. Health centres are essential to reduce the workload from Mater Dei Hospital.

Pace said patients at the health centres were directed to go to Mater Dei Hospital, clogging the hospital’s emergency and accident department.

He said that alternative lighting sources such as emergency electric lightening by battery failed to work and telephone lines were not working.

“One should not forget the impact of a power cut on vaccines stored at health centres due to lack of temperature control.”

Pace said it was ironic that hundreds of thousands of euros were spent in refurbishing health centres but generators were not factored in.

The MUMN urged the Health Ministry and the Health Department to install generators at the health care centres, starting with those that operate on a 24-hour basis.

“We hope that such an appeal does not fall on deaf ears as has happened with the previous administration,” Pace said.