Malta: Flu cases: Hospital treats 300 patients a day

[Ronan Kelly]

Thursday, 6th January 2011 - 07:21CET

Flu cases: Hospital treats 300 patients a day
Nikki Abela Mercieca

UPDATED - The Health Department said today that the Emergency Department is treating some 300 patients per day because of a severe outbreak of influenza.

It apologised to patients and their relatives after 18 patients were yesterday transferred from Mater Dei to private facilities and thanked the medical and transport staff for their services and cooperation.

Earlier today The Times reported that public and private hospitals were chock-a-block yesterday, struggling with a wave of patients struck by what the Health Department described as a ?severe outbreak of influenza?.

The situation reached a point where the management of Mater Dei had to turn to the St James Group for help with bed space, only to be told they too were full to capacity.

?Both St James? hospitals are full. We have patients waiting on chairs in emergency for people to be discharged from the wards to use the room directly afterwards,? Maria Bugeja, director of St James Hospital Group said.

She admitted the situation was not uncommon at this time of the year. However, the situation has been made worse by the crowding at Mater Dei.

...

continues at; http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles...-chock-a-block

[Anne]

Re: Malta: Flu cases: Hospital treats 300 patients a day

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http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/more-than-200-%E2%80%9Cvery-sick%E2%80%9D-admitted-between-now-and-new-year%E2%80%99s-eve

The department also said that Mater Dei Hospital has registered more than 200 admissions of very sick persons as in-patients between New Year?s Eve and 1600hrs today. ?The management fully understands and appreciates the increased workload on the nursing, medical and other staff and is working hard to ensure a smoother patient flow.?

In the same statement, health authorities said that influenza activity in the Maltese community is being monitored by the Public Health Department through the influenza sentinel surveillance system. The current situation is that influenza-like illness in Maltaas per case definition set by ECDC has trebled over the last 15 days as follows:

Week 50/2010: 47.6 affected persons per 1000 population

Week 51/2010: 102.8 affected persons per 1000 population

Week 52/2010: 132.7 affected persons per 1000 population

The department justified this by saying that ?at this time of the year, an increase in flu activity is normally expected.?

[tetano]

Re: Malta: Flu cases: Hospital treats 300 patients a day

28 cases of H1N1 since influenza season started ? typical for cases to peak at this time

28 people have so far tested positive for the H1N1 virus since the beginning of the flu season, that is, since October 2010, according to a spokesperson for the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Department.

Foreign news media, particularly those in the UK, have been buzzing with warnings that the swine flu pandemic is not really over, as the World Health Organisation (WHO) had announced in August 2010.

Headlines such as ?Half of intensive care patients have swine flu ? and that figure could rise, warn experts? (Daily Mirror) and ?Ten dead as H1N1 flu returns to Britain? (Reuters) spread concern that another outbreak is on the cards.

However it is normal at this time of the year that the number of influenza cases increases, the spokesperson said. So far during this influenza season there has been one death from H1N1 ? a 70-year-old British tourist.

http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=118184

[Shiloh]

Re: Malta: Flu cases: Hospital treats 300 patients a day

Source: http://www.independent.com.mt/news.a...sitemid=118328

Emergency nurses frustrated by their ?12 hours of hell?
by Scott Grech

Such is the chaos at Mater Dei?s Accident and Emergency (A&E) department these days, that nurses have started describing their 12-hour work shifts as ?12 hours of hell?, John Zammit, president of the newly formed Emergency Nurses Union (ENU), told our sister daily paper in an interview to be published tomorrow.

He also disagreed with Health Minister Joe Cassar and MUMN president Paul Pace?s assessment that the situation at A&E was now back to normal after the influenza outbreak that had pushed capacity at the department to the brink.

There are some 82 A&E nurses working in the department ? the majority of whom, he says, feel that their work is not being appreciated. ?Shifts are divided into four, and, depending on the roster, nurses? day shifts run from 7am to 7.30pm and night shifts from 7pm till 7.30am − with 15 nurses deployed for every shift, plus other nurses who work either day or night duty.

?Nurses work for two consecutive days, one during the day and the other at night, and then have a day of rest and a day off duty. Mr Zammit points out. In 24 hours, an average 350 patients come through the A&E department?s doors, so just imagine the nurses? workload. It?s no wonder nurses are worn out towards the end of their shift, and unfortunately, the majority of us have come to describe our shifts as ?12 hours of hell?...?