The government’s lack of vision with regard to the provision of space at the St Vincent de Paul home for the elderly is becoming evident, less than five months after the opening of the Mother Teresa ward, Labour MPs Marie Louise Coleiro Preca and Silvio Parnis said in a statement yesterday.

The Labour MPs said Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi officially opened the Mother Teresa ward at St Vincent de Paul five months ago.

Back then, the Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry for Health, the Elderly and Community Care, Helen D’Amato, had said that the main challenge in the planning of this ward was that of providing more beds and improving the level of comfort of every resident.

The Labour MPs added that Mrs D’Amato had also said that the number of beds had gone up by 25 per cent, while the number of residents in each room had fallen from six to four and each room had an en suite bathroom.

This week, however, a number of elderly people who had been receiving treatment in specific wards at Mount Carmel Hospital, have started to be transferred to St Vincent de Paul, precisely to the newly-opened Mother Teresa ward, said the Labour MPs, adding that as a result, the wards now included five elderly people crammed in every room with less privacy and comfort.

Mrs Coleiro Preca and Mr Parnis said the elderly people in this ward were not the only ones suffering the negative consequences of this decision, but members of staff at St Vincent de Paul were also burdened with extra pressure to be able to cope. The MPs said this was another case by means of which the Nationalist Party prided itself in improving the quality of life of the elderly residents at St Vincent de Paul, but then ended up doing the opposite due to lack of planning and vision.

The Nationalist government was still treating the elderly at this residence as a number and not as individuals who deserved the highest level of respect and dignity for having given their contribution to society when they were still healthy.