It has to be said. The Malta Union of Midwives and nurses was right all along. The previous administration had tried to make out that the nurses’union had politicised the Mater Dei overcrowding issue. The MUMN was harangued and even demonised by the previous government, and it was accused of using the situation to try and ‘help’the PL, which was in opposition at the time.

But it goes beyond this. The union had said that there were going to be problems even before St Luke’s migrated to Mater Dei. Again, the government of the time tried to make out that the nurses were simply trying to resist change.

In the meantime, Labour swept to power in a landslide victory. As soon as the PL government tried to get to grips with the situation, it became evidently clear that the problem was even greater than first feared.

So much so, Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia moved his office to the hospital in an effort to try and have some modicum of control over the rapidly degenerating situation.

In turn, in the last budget, the government announced that it would be adding some 40-50 beds in the hospital, in an effort to have stretchers moved out of the corridor. Again, the MUMN dismissed the move, saying that the hospital needed hundreds more beds, not just the handful that was being proposed.

It is true that Mater Dei’s corridors are set up with all the necessary points to treat patients. But as the union explained sometime ago, this is only supposed to be in cases of epidemics, or emergencies. The union said that once the flu season set in (which it has) overcrowding would rear its ugly head and return with a vengeance. It seems to be that the union was right once again.

This government does have a tendency to blame all existing problems on the previous administration. In this case, it could well be correct. But the country does not need to watch a spiteful blame game (from both sides of the political spectrum). What it does need is for the overcrowding problem to be addressed concretely, once and for all. We all know that there are new centres being built – the Oncology one, for starters. But that is not going to do anything to solve the problem in Mater Dei itself. Day surgery is one option, but it will not (excuse the pun) cure all ills that the hospital is experiencing. The only option left is to expand the hospital. There are, however, problems. One is the footprint of Mater Dei hospital. There is not much room to expand laterally. And the second is that there have been no funds budgeted for it. Perhaps the only way forward is to build upwards. But still, we need to find the money to do it.