Nurses hit out at government again as patients wait for 18 hours to get a bed

Last week, Health Minister Joe Cassar claimed the situation at the A&E department at Mater Dei Hospital was getting back to normal.

However, statement about the bed shortage at Mater Dei, the ENU claimed Cassar’s reaction was a far cry from reality.

“Unless the Minister faces the reality of the problem and will be willing to accept suggestions from the Union, the problem will never improve,” President ENU John Zammit said.

“As a union representing nurses working in the Accident and Emergency department, we are hereby bringing again to the attention of the Health Department the need to take prompt actions and to find a quick solution to avoid such situations happening repetitively which are putting patients’ health  and staff safety at risk,” the Union said.

Earlier today, the Labour Party issued a statement claiming that the regular overcrowding at the Emergency and Admissions Ward was a consequence of the government’s decision not to build an additional planned floor at Mater Dei.

“Its failure to engage more nurses and its failure to invest in health centres leads to the regular overcrowding,” the Labour said.

Michael Farrugia, Labour Party’s social policy spokesman, said that a regular occurrence of overcrowding show that there is something which is fundamentally wrong.

“Were it not for the hospital staff, who did their best to keep patients comfortable, the situation would be worse,” Farrugia said.

Farrugia criticised government for taking the decision of opening a hospital which had fewer beds than St Luke’s Hospital.

“Government has allowed the shortage of nurses to grow to some 700 vacant positions,” Farrugia claimed. “Management by crisis, such as by transferring patients to other facilities, were not enough. Government needs to take concrete action to solve this problem.”