When, just before the turn of the century, it was deemed that St Luke’s Hospital had become too small and not adequate to meet the needs of the country, the Mater Dei Hospital was built with the idea that it would serve as the backbone of health services provided.

St Luke’s Hospital started to be built in the 1930s, and although it was partially in use during the Second World War, it was not until the late 1940s that it took over the role of the main hospital, a role which it held for more than half a century until it was replaced as a general hospital by Mater Dei in 2007. St Luke’s has been lying in a state of disrepair since then.

Mater Dei Hospital was built not without a series of controversies, as it took a long 15 years to complete. Launched for the first time in 1992, there was a change in plans when the Labour government took over the reins of the country in 1996, and then it took until 2007 for it to be finally completed and to replace St Luke’s Hospital.

When Mater Dei Hospital was conceived, Malta’s population stood at nearly 370,000, and it was thought that the new hospital would be able to handle the medical needs comfortably. By the time the hospital opened in 2007, the population had grown to over 405,000, a natural growth that still enabled the new hospital to deal with the situation easily.

But, as time went by, it became apparent that the hospital started to struggle to manage the growing requirements. (We’re talking, here, about space only. The difficulties in finding enough doctors, nurses, paramedical staff to deal with the necessities is a separate problem which we have spoken about extensively in the past.) Space in the complex was limited, and it was clear that the hospital could no longer provide for what was needed.

The building of the oncology centre, finished in 2014, was one way of tackling the situation, as patients needing treatment for cancer were moved in this new wing. But it has not been enough, and in the last decade we have seen several areas of the hospital being converted into wards.

The fact that, over the last 10 years, the number of people residing in Malta has jumped exponentially from over 425,000 to nearly 550,000 has added to the burden on the hospital. It took more than half a century for St Luke’s to be considered as being too small for the country’s needs; Mater Dei is under the same strain just 16 years into its operation.

As things stand now, and if the population continues to grow with the same rhythm, and if the conversion of existing spaces at Mater Dei into wards will not be enough to meet the demand, there will be no other option but to expand the hospital with new wings.

The government has the responsibility to see that it is not caught off guard. We may be already too late.