Starting tomorrow week, there will be no outpatient service at St Luke’s for an entire week, and non-urgent operations will also be blocked for the same period, as the time for the migration of St Luke’s to Mater Dei draws near.

The whole aim, as Mater Dei spokesman Chris Scicluna told me in an interview, is to reduce the number of in-bed patients that will have to be moved when the wards they are in are transferred to Tal-Qroqq. Those patients who have undergone operations this coming week, and can go home, will be discharged and any new patients requiring surgery will be admitted after the ward has made the move to Mater Dei.

As for the Out-patients Department, patients are currently being advised by post. Eighty per cent of outpatient appointments have been moved back by only two weeks. At the other end of the scale, what are known as “social cases” at St Luke’s will be held there in two wards prior to their being dispersed to homes for the elderly.

Since the administration moved to Mater Dei last August, a lot has been happening. Patient records are now at Tal-Qroqq, and the pharmacies have been stocked, as well as the supply of medicines in the various wards. Other support services, such as customer care, are already there and public services such as the cafeteria and the bookshop, as well as parking, are already up and running.

The Outpatients Depart-ment will open gradually as from 12 November, whereas the transfer of wards will begin from around mid-November. The first wards to be transferred will be those that do not have an impact on other departments or normally require the support of, for example, ITU or emergency. Such wards are the observation wards. The last wards to move will be the ITU and emergency wards, as well as the maternity wards.

The exact timetable cannot be announced now, as there has to be an element of flexibility in it. If there are storms, for instance, it would hardly be advisable to move patients from one hospital to the other.

Four or five wards will be transferred each day. The transfer will be made during the morning in order to leave the rest of the day for the patient to settle in and for any possible issues that may arise to be tackled.

Patients who can walk will be transferred by minibus, while bed-patients will be transferred by ambulance. There will be police along the route to speed up the passage, while car drivers will be asked not to use the route between St Luke’s and Mater Dei on those days. Patient safety must be paramount throughout the period.

The relatives of patients who are to be transferred will also be asked to help by being advised some days prior to the transfer to remove all non-essential articles from the patient’s bedside lockers, leaving only what is strictly necessary – what the patient can put in one plastic bag. When the patient arrives at Mater Dei he or she will find juice, water and snacks in their bedside locker, as well as the service of the in-patient catering.

During the migration, most morning visiting will be curbed, except in paediatric and maternity cases and if, for instance, people have come from abroad and cannot wait.

The fact that the outpatient service will be blocked will remove a daily dose of 700 cars from the St Luke’s area, as well as most of the normal daily traffic in and out of the hospital.

As for the maternity wards (in the widest sense), there is high expectation and even speculation as to when the transfer will happen, as many mothers-to-be are keen to have their babies at Mater Dei. These wards, as has already been said, will be among the last to move and for a time there will also be a split-site operation, which will put increased pressure on the staff.

It has been said that Mater Dei will open without two wards and some operating theatres, but Mr Scicluna said that all the wards and operating theatres that are currently at St Luke’s will move to Mater Dei, so there will not be any fewer than there are at St Luke’s. It will only be after the migration is completed that the hospital will move to increase the number of its wards and theatres. The two wards that have been mentioned as not opening at Mater Dei – Urology 2 and Paediatric Day Care – do not exist at St Luke’s, but as from Day One there will be a paediatric day care service at Mater Dei.

A big information campaign – through billboards, a dedicated help line (158) and a special website – www.materdeihospital.org.mt – will explain things in detail, as will a fully detailed booklet that is to be sent to all homes, which gives the new telephone numbers, explanations of the different uniforms, how to get there, the colour code, how to get to each ward, patient rights, etc.