Special voting arrangements for hospital patients

The government has announced a list of special arrangements through which patients in state-run hospitals will be able to vote in the upcoming spring hunting referendum and local council elections.

Patients who are receiving treatment in Mater Dei, Mount Carmel, the Karen Grech Rehabilitation Centre and the Gozo General Hospital at 6pm by 6 April will be able to vote in their respective hospitals on Thursday, 9 April between 7am and 10pm.

As a result, visiting hours to these hospitals on 9 April will be restricted to one hour- between 7 and 8pm.

Patients admitted to these four hospitals, as well as patients in the Boffa hospital, who are admitted after 6pm on 6 April will have to vote on election day, 11 April, in the polling stations indicated on their voting documents.

Doctors will determine whether each patient can leave the hospital to vote and, if so, through which mode of transport. Patients will be able to make use of vehicles offered by the Health Department.

If relatives plan to take patients out of hospital to vote, they must first obtain written permission from the hospital administration. On voting day, they must show this permit to the hospital security and to the official responsible for the patient’s transport to the voting station. To facilitate the process, the Health Department has suggested relatives to pick up their relatives between 1 and 5pm.

Patients who want to leave the hospital to vote against their doctors’ advice must first sign a declaration that they are doing so at their own responsibility.

Patients will require their voting documents to vote. Arrangements have been made for patients to securely entrust their voting documents to hospital authorities.