Emergency nurses request new area at Mater Dei for holding bay

Following a three-hour meeting held earlier this morning with the Mater Dei hospital management, the Emergency Nurses Union (ENU) is requesting another area adjacent to the A&E department to act as a holding bay for patients before they are assigned beds in the ward.

President of the Emergency Nurses Union John Zammit said that this is still not a solution and the problem of lack of beds needs to be addressed.

Area 2 of the emergency ward has been closed off to accommodate patients that are waiting to be admitted into the wards. The area includes only 6 cubicles, though there are 25 patients occupying that area.

Other patients are occupying corridor space, as there is nowhere else to put them while they wait for beds in the wards. This is restricting access to the acute area of A & E, which needs to be kept clear for ambulance access.

Zammit said that there are not even enough stretchers to accommodate the influx of patients comparing the emergency to ward to one in a third world country.

The ENU has offered management a number of options saying that space is available for more beds to be set up and that it is just a question of having one of the options approved.

Air circulation is also of major concern due to the vast numbers of people waiting to be accommodated. Zammit has requested a risk assessment to be carried out to determine the risk factor for both patients and staff.

“At the moment patients with suspected H1N1 are being left waiting with other patients increasing the risk of contagion if the test results turn out to be positive.”

At this stage the union cannot exclude the possibility of issuing directives if the situation is not addressed.