Much has been said and written about the hospital waiting lists over the past months, if not years. It was thought that the shift from St Luke’s Hospital to Mater Dei Hospital in late 2007 would have led to a reduction of such lists and, although some progress has been registered, it is still not enough.

The opposition has made a meal of this situation, blaming the government for such delays and urging it to make amends. Lack of staff as well as bureaucracy have not helped, and the fact that some of the hospital theatres are not in use shows that much more needs to be done to get things going.

There is another aspect that has emerged recently, and this is surely an important factor in the equation.

Parliamentary Secretary Joe Cassar made things clear when he addressed a Nationalist Party activity last Sunday. Choosing his words carefully, he said that hospital beds are sometimes occupied by patients who could be discharged, and yet they are kept at Mater Dei because they have no one to take care of them at home.

It could be because they really have no relatives or friends, but in most cases it is because their families are too busy with their own lives to spare a few days to nurse their loved ones. It is not uncommon therefore that these families request the hospital authorities to keep their relatives in hospital for a few extra days until these patients recover fully and can take care of themselves at home. There have also been cases when nobody goes to pick up patients who have been discharged.

This means that there are many instances where patients can leave hospital and continue to be taken care of in their home, and yet continue to occupy a hospital bed unnecessarily because this domestic care cannot be provided.

There are two comments to make in this regard. The first is that families should make a bigger effort to take care of their relatives in their own home. It might require sacrifices, such as taking vacation leave, but at the end of the day we are talking about people who we (are supposed to) love, and therefore we should be prepared to offer them support when they need it.

Mater Dei Hospital is a state-of-the-art complex that provides excellent care and today has many facilities that make patients extremely comfortable during their stay in hospital. All beds have access to television, radio and telephone without patients needing to leave their wards, just to mention some of these facilities. However, a hospital is always a hospital, and it can never provide the well-being of one’s own home.

Secondly, the freeing up of beds at the hospital will speed up the medical process others have to face and would ultimately help in cutting down on the long waiting lists. If each and every patient had to spend one unnecessary night extra in hospital, others will have to wait longer to get the necessary treatment. By being selfish, many are depriving others of treatment or prolonging their predicament.

Apart from this, just consider the unnecessary expenses that are incurred – it costs the state e256 per day to keep a patient in a common ward, nearly double that in a high-dependency ward and nearly four times more in intensive care.

It does not take much for families, particularly the bigger ones, to find ways and means how to organise themselves when they have a relative who could be cared for in the home after a surgery or a stay in hospital.

It would be a chance to show respect and love for a relative, and at the same time open the space for others who need treatment in hospital.