Works at Mount Carmel Hospital include a reorganisation of hospital wards and not just aesthetic refurbishment, Health Minister Chris Fearnetold The Malta Independent.
Patients at the hospital had complained to this newsroom about hospital management allowing smoking across most areas within the hospital, in breach of national law.
To put things in perspective, those who complained acknowledged that patients struggling with serious mental health issues or drug dependency issues should be allowed to smoke should they choose to, however they called for better management of smoke friendly and non-smoking areas.
Other patients complained of non-functional smoke detectors in many areas due to smoking being allowed, such as in the hospital’s canteen.
Asked about the plans for Mount Carmel Hospital and whether there is a view to better manage this situation, Fearne said:
“Part of our process is not just an aesthetic refurbishment, but we are reorganising the hospital wards.
“There are wards with certain challenges where they need more surveillance, others need less stringent regulations. This is all being decided based on advice from the medical and other relevant technical experts.
“In addition to this, we have a number of patients who come and go. They stay for some time and are discharged, and then come back in. We have wards with acute patients, and the plan is to have a dedicated hospital, which is earmarked to be at Mater Dei Hospital.”
Mount Carmel Psychiatric Hospital had made headlines months ago after media stories depicted the dilapidatedstate many wards are in.
Such stories coupled with the tragic news of a young man who took his own life after escaping from the facility, when he should have been under round-the-clock surveillance, shone a depressing light on what life can be like inside the hospital.
In addition to needing renovation and upgrading, a serious shortage of nurses, especially those specialising in psychiatry is present. Recently, Minister Fearne held a press conference to announce an aggressive recruitment campaign to hire more nurses. He had said that despite the government reaching its previous target on the additional supply to the nurses working in public health, an increase in the health care service requires even more nurses to be recruited.
The Richmond Foundation, an NGO specialising in mental health, together with the Alliance for Mental Health – a group which brings together all relevant stakeholders in mental health from patient representatives to psychiatric representatives, have repeatedly called for the state psychiatric hospital to be included in the Mater Dei Hospital footprint.
This would help to diminish the stigma against mental health patients whilst also helping to ensure that standards upheld at Mater Dei Hospital would extend to the psychiatric facility.