Responding to a parliamentary question posed by Opposition MP Ian Vassallo, Health Minister Chris Fearne revealed that the average patient at Mater Dei’s accident and emergency department waited around three hours to bee seen by a doctor.

Fearne informed parliament that there was an average three hour waiting time between a patient being registered at the department and a doctor attending to them. 

The statistic was derived from the experience of 5,432 patients who reported to the emergency department between 1st and 21st of February. 

The three hour waiting period was not always the case as anyone who reports to the A&E undergo triage – a process which lets medical staff determine how urgent their medical condition is. 

Those with urgent care are given priority, taking medical staff an average of 19 minutes to carry out triage on patients after they were registered. 

Vassallo also asked the Health Minister which areas of Mater Dei had to be converted into temporary wards in February and how many beds were placed in these areas. 

The Deputy Prime Minister responded saying that there were three such instances in February. ITU 6 was opened for 9 patients on February 6th, ITU 3 was opened for 6 patients on February 20th and an endoscopy day care unit was opened for 12 patients on February 20th as well. 

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