The opening of the Medical Admissions Unit at St. Luke’s Hospital was delayed on Monday after the Medical Association of Malta (MAM) ordered that no patients should be admitted to the new unit amid complaints of staff shortage and of lack of consultation. The unit replaces what was formerly known as the M5 hall on the third floor of the Hospital; however its beds remained empty.
Only nurses reported to the unit, with doctors heeding the MAM’s directive not to admit any patients into the new Unit and to continue to give full treatment to those patients admitted to the other wards.
MAM claimed that the directive was issued because of a serious shortage of medical staff where some employees were threatened to have their leave restricted. The union added that under present circumstances should the new unit have admitted patients, the safety of those recovered in the hospital at large could have not been guaranteed. The MAM also stated that consultation with the union concerning the unit was poor. In a statement MAM Secretary General Dr. Martin Balzan added that the proposed date of opening was not communicated to doctors to the extent that most staff learned about it from third parties.
The Health Division stated that the union had no business seeing to a purely administrative division which is aiming at offering patients a better service, heightened ease for the hospital’s staff as well as a reduced overcrowding in the hospital’s halls. The Division added that the opening of the new hall would have not increased operations within the hospital and that a number of months ago the specialist consultants in the medicine department were consulted about the issue, where suggestions put forward by the staff were taken into account.
Thousands of Maltese Liri have been invested into the new unit which is set to cater for two diverse categories of patients. The new Medical Admissions Unit, made up of 14 beds, is an initiative to provide an area where patients can be diagnosed, treated and either discharged or admitted to another ward within a maximum of 72 hours. This strategy is aimed at curbing problems of lack of privacy at St. Luke’s hospital where patients’ beds are at times set up and left in halls’ corridors.
In turn, two new Hyperbaric Chambers will be installed in Mater Dei Hospital in Tal-Qroqq after arriving in Malta from Germany on Monday. These chambers are used to manage certain medical conditions and to treat divers who may encounter difficulties whilst diving.
he chambers weighing 55 and 15 tonnes respectively will be installed in the Hospital on Tuesday. The chambers cost around Lm 686,800 (€1.6 million, US$2.0 million). The Hyperbaric Unit at Mater Dei Hospital is designed to house three decompression chambers of this sort.
One of the new chambers is a Low Pressure Chamber – 4 Bar. Being a twelve seater and rectangular in shape it looks like an ordinary room. The chamber weighs 55 tonnes and is 7 meters long, 2.6 meters wide and 2.2 meters high.
The second Hyperbaric Chamber is a High Pressure Chamber – 10 Bar. It is a 4 seater and circular in shape. This chamber weighs 15 tonnes and is approximately 3 meters in diameter. It is a
A third Hyperbaric Chamber is presently used at St. Luke’s Hospital and eventually is to be transferred to Mater Dei Hospital.
Once at Mater Dei Hospital the 3 chambers will be installed on a raised flooring to allow for the supply of cables and other services. In the same area, there is a control console for the personnel managing the chambers.
The Foundation for Medical Services is purchasing these chambers as part of the Medical Equipment, awarded to Inso on the 23rd January 2004. The manufacturers are Haux Ltd, subcontractors for Inso.
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