The vast majority of people who visited the Accident & Emergency department at Mater Dei during the first half of this year were self-referrals, an internal report published by the PN shows.

Of the 61,684 people who attended A&E this year, 44,110 (72 per cent) were self-referrals.

This clearly shows that the government's message on primary healthcare is not getting through, the Shadow Minister for Health Claudette Buttigieg said today.

The report indicates that 23,024 of these patients could have gone to health centres instead of the A&E department.

These figures show that 15 per cent of the Maltese population sought help at A&E.

Mrs Buttigieg said the report shows that 53 per cent of all people with an outpatients' appointment did not turn up, likely due to their frustration with the system.

The report shows that from the beginning of the year, an average of 50 patients a week accumulate at Mater Dei.

This clearly points to a management problem, Mrs Buttigieg said.

PN candidate Mario Rizzo Naudi said staff at the Gozo general hospital have been left in the dark about their futures, and have no idea who will taking over the service in the next few weeks. 

Government replies

In reply, the Health Secretariat said having patients hosted in corridors is the symptom of a small hospital build by the previous government.

It denied that this summer has seen a record number of patients in corridors, saying more patients were hosted in corridors in the summers of 2011 and 2012.

The government is working on extending the hospital by a further 300 beds.

More operations are taking place under this government and the A&E department has been restructured, the government said.

Photo and video by Jonathan Borg