San Vincenz Installs New Doors ‘To Ensure Safety Of Residents And Improve Environment’
St Vincent De Paul Long-Term Facility (SVPR) has installed new doors, separating residents from the existing doors.
This infrastructural change comes after Charlie Fino, an 83-year-old patient with dementia, went missing from the facility last month.
Asked whether the doors are being installed to ensure the Fino case doesn’t repeat itself, a spokesperson for Active Ageing Minister Joe Etienne Abela told Lovin Malta that the “work is part of the continuous improvement of infrastructure to ensure the safety of residents and improve the general environment”.
After Fino was reported missing on 28th June, SVPR set up an internal inquiry – led by retired judge Geoffrey Valencia – to come up with recommendations to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.
Fino is still missing weeks later, with police saying they have “exhausted all possible avenues” but appealing to the public to keep on the lookout.
However, his relatives have publicly urged the police not to give up the search, with Melissa Cini saying the family deserves some closure, no matter the conditions that Fino is found in.
“Even if he is found dead, at least we can put him to rest with dignity and give him a proper funeral and burial. For us, this is important,” she said.
“This is a human being for crying out loud.”
The Fino case has also brought the problem of Malta’s nurse shortage to the forefront. The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses has warned that the ward Fino was in at the time he left the building was only being managed by a single nurse, despite an agreement with the hospital’s management stating it should be manned by at least two nurses.
“Due to a chronic lack of nurses, which MUMN has been protesting with the authorities for years on end, on the day of the incident only one nurse – from the reliever pool, and not a nurse who habitually works in this ward – was assigned to this ward,” the statement reads.
What can be done to solve Malta’s nurse shortage problem?
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