Starting at 7am tomorrow, the remaining patients in four wards at St Luke’s will be moved to Mater Dei Hospital, thus becoming the first live-in patients at the new hospital.
The wards being moved tomorrow are two surgical and two medical wards, till now known by their St Luke’s names – MS2, WS2, M3 and M4.
The fact that operations at St Luke’s were not performed last week means that the number of patients in these wards is rather less than usual; in fact some patients were discharged yesterday or will be discharged today, leaving those who are still in an acute phase to be transferred to Mater Dei.
The first patients will arrive at Mater Dei around 8am.
Also to be transferred tomorrow are cardiac medical patients who were rather widely spread in St Luke’s but who will be now concentrated in the new cardiac ward at Mater Dei.
The Renal Unit will also be transferring half its patients tomorrow, with the other half being transferred later in the week.
As a result of this migration, the ITU will start operating at Mater Dei as from tomorrow, but will still be operating at St Luke’s.
With the new hospital taking in its first patients, there is a rather morbid expectation – to see who will be the first patient to die at Mater Dei. In fact, the mortuary will also be operating split site as from this week.
Also beginning tomorrow will be a large series of surgeries at Mater Dei. These include cataracts, colonoscopy, endoscopy, hernia, breast lumps procedures with consultants such as Mario Vassallo, Franco Mercieca, Professor Laferla, Arthur Felice (this is Mr Felice’s last month before he retires) and A. Attard.
Most of the outpatients departments will be operating at Mater Dei as from tomorrow. These include the ophthalmic, diabetes, endocrine and medical departments, and flebotomy. Already operating as from last Wednesday are the orthopaedic, ENT, and audiology outpatients departments.
After tomorrow, migration will continue to the tune of four to five wards being transferred every day, with the medical and surgical wards first and the more complicated ones last.
As regards the story carried by maltastar.com on Friday that patients at St Luke’s were being moved from their beds on to old beds, a Mater Dei spokesman said that a substantial number of beds at Mater Dei are brand new. What were transferred were beds that were purchased recently and are of the same quality as the ones at Mater Dei. All beds transferred were fully sterilized before being admitted to Mater Dei.
There is also a sort of anniversary: The CCU was opened at St Luke’s on 19 November 1982 and will be closing (moving to Mater Dei) on 18 November 2007, that is, 25 years to the day after its opening.