A spokesperson for Fearne said the photos “refer to part of an extension of MIU6 which was set up during the pandemic to provide extra beds when Mater Dei Hospital exceeded its full capacity”.

“This escalation ward has not been used since winter,” he said. 

“The portable showers were installed temporarily for this temporary extension, while there are separate ‘normal’ toilet and sink facilities nearby.”

However, Fearne’s statement has been contradicted by people who have experienced the ward with their own eyes. 

A woman whose relative was receiving treatment at the ward earlier this month told Lovin Malta that the mobile shower has a curtain behind it where patients can dry themselves and get changed but that the nearest toilet is some distance away.

Moreover, there are no curtains separating beds from each other, with the woman warning the ward houses some 30 patients and resembles a military hospital ward

“I don’t expect to have to use a mobile shower at the hospital,” she said. “It’s outrageous (pastażata kbira)… you go to a hospital that is funded through your taxes and you get treated like this. I can’t complain about the nurses but infrastructure-wise it’s too much.”

A number of people backed up Delia’s statement under his post, with a woman recounting how her mother experienced the ward herself and had to end up using a washing basin near her bed. 

“This is no joke; there isn’t even a screen between the beds and their clothes are tossed onto a chair,” someone else commented. “It’s like a dormitory or a military hospital.”

Lovin Malta has requested a visit to the MIU6 ward, with respect towards the privacy of the patients being treated there. 

Have you or a relative been treated at the MIU6 ward recently? Speak to Lovin Malta in confidence by emailing [email protected]