The Health Department seems to be very concerned about the increasing number of social cases that local hospitals have to deal with.

In a press conference held last week, Health Minister Louis Deguara and Parliamentary Secretary for the Elderly Helen D’Amato gave details about the prevailing situation and what the government intends to do to help curb the problem.

It was said that these social cases put undue pressure on the staff working at St Luke’s Hospital, who already have enough on their plate in taking care of people needing treatment. Over-crowding problems at the hospital make the conditions for both the staff working there and the patients less favourable than they should be. Yet, of course, these people need to be given all the attention that is possible, and cannot be ignored.

Around 100 more beds will be needed every year over the next 10 years for social cases, a staggering figure indeed. Talks have been held with the unions concerned to obtain their feedback on possible solutions, short and long-term, to this growing problem. One such solution is the renting of beds in private homes, but even here too few are available to be able to meet the exigencies.

The creation of space at Mount Carmel Hospital and St Vincent de Paule residential home for the elderly will also go a long way towards improving the situation. Although it will ease the pressure on St Luke’s Hospital, because cases that are not considered acute will be transferred there, this is still not enough.

But the issue goes beyond the provision of beds for these so-called social cases. Sometimes we tend to think in numbers and ignore the fact that each of the social cases is an individual who has probably been abandoned by his or her relatives and has nowhere to stay, and therefore has to remain in hospital when home treatment would have been sufficient. In a society that is based on family values and the strength of our unity, this is unacceptable.

We are all proud that Maltese society has strong family values, and in many aspects the family bond is still strong. But on occasions, when we hear that so many people have no one to whom to turn for comfort and no one to take care of them until they recover from some medical intervention or condition, then we do have our doubts.

In most cases, these social cases are elderly people who have probably spent their life serving their family and working hard to raise their children. They have probably spent sleepless nights nursing their children when they were sick, worked overtime to earn that extra lira for their family to live better and done their utmost to give their children a better life than theirs.

Is this the way they should be treated in the last years of their life? Should these same children, now grown up and with their own life to live, abandon their parents? Should these people be kept in hospital for longer than necessary just because there are no relatives who can spare the time to take care of them in their home?

The answer is no.

Although our lives are so full with work (and in some instances a part-time job), taking care of the house and children and doing other activities that one is of course entitled to, we should all find the time to take care of those people who, in the past, when we needed it, took care of us.

It is our duty to show our appreciation and respect to those people who have practically lived for us to make our life better. One day, we might need the same help that they require today.