The new oncology day ward, opened yesterday at Sir Paul Boffa Hospital, is intended to alleviate the increased workload at the hospital, where 1,126 people were admitted last year for an average stay of 10 days, Health Minister Louis Deguara said yesterday.

Opening the ward, which was sponsored by Cherubino Ltd, Simonds Farsons Cisk, APS Bank and the Malta Cancer Foundation, Dr Deguara said the recent successes in the field of cancer cures, especially as a result of advances in chemotherapy, have necessitated the opening of another day ward. This, he said, will also serve to improve the environment faced by people whenever they visit Sir Paul Boffa Hospital.

He said that the number of patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment had increased dramatically in recent years and the place where they previously received this treatment was not adequate to cater for the increased numbers.

The new oncology day ward, said the minister, would give patients more space and privacy when they visit the hospital, making what was already a psychologically difficult experience that little bit better. The patients will now undergo their treatment on specifically-designed couches donated by Cherubino Ltd.

At the end of 2004, there were 48 beds in four wards at Boffa Hospital. The average occupancy rate last year was 63.8 per cent. Just over 53 per cent of patients were females. There were 1,126 admissions, 1,014 discharges and 107 deaths in 2004.

Dr Deguara said a decision has been taken not to move the facilities available at Sir Paul Boffa Hospital to the new Meter Dei Hospital in the first phase. This means that work on the necessary upgrading of the former hospital will now commence. He mentioned, among other things, the structural changes which are necessary in order to accommodate the state-of-the-art equipment needed to treat cancer patients.