Labour’s social policy and health spokespersons Michael Farrugia and Anthony Zammit yesterday spoke out against “serious shortcomings at Mater Dei hospital”, describing how the lack of bed space left patients waiting for hours on end on stretchers, corridors or areas where there are no emergency medical facilities.
Farrugia and Zammit described the state of affairs as “undignifying” for patients.
“The stories we are hearing on a daily basis should embarrass the Nationalist government and Lawrence Gonzi,” the party officials, who are both medics, said in a statement. “Labour has been drawing attention to the miserable condition the emergency department is in, but since it all fell on deaf ears, the situation has today gone from bad to worse.”
The MPs said that Mater Dei hospital staff members are doing whatever is humanly possible to provide assistance in an “environment that has been created due to hard headedness and lack of vision in successive PN governments’ health ministries.”
The statement reminded that when Mater Dei was launched, besides having a low bed-count, was also short-staffed “because nobody from the government thought of the trained human resources required for the project.”
The spokespersons pointed out that there had also been assurances that with Mater Dei, previous problems of beds in corridors or social cases staying in hospital despite not needing medical recovery would end, “but we are now facing the same problems all over again.”
They accused Gonzi of making false promises, even on keeping healthcare free. The MPs said that health services should not only remain free but be “given in a timely manner, and at the best possible standard where the patient comes first.”
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