د . إAEDSRر . س

‘We Are Doing An Excellent Job’: Good Samaritan Home Calls Out ‘Recycled Misinformation’, Insists It’s Licensed As A Hospital

Article Featured Image

Good Samaritan – a converted care home for elderly COVID-19 patients in St Paul’s Bay – rubbished claims that the treatment offered at the facility is sub-par.

Yesterday, shadow health minister Stephen Spiteri told a press conference that some of his patients have complained to him about standards at Good Samaritan, which is named as a hospital but licensed as a long-term facility.

In light of these claims, the facility defended its status as a hospital.

“The Good Samaritan Hospital is a newly built facility and is licensed to function as a hospital according to article 98 of the Medical and Kindred Professions Ordinance,” the facility said.

“To quality for this license, GSH was inspected on various occasions by the Health Care Standards Authority and SCSA, follow strict guidelines including those with regard to measurements, equipment, staffing, protocols, standard operating practices and a long list of other considerations.”

Yesterday, PN MP Maria Deguara warned that patients at the facility are being kept in small rooms, their beds not even two metres apart from each other, and with no access to telephones.

Once again, the facility denied said claims and insisted that all shared rooms range from 22.5 to 29 square metres excluding bathroom and are all wheelchair accessible.

Deguara had also flagged that many staff members cannot speak Maltese or English and said she received “unverified information” that some of them tested positive for COVID-19 themselves.

“At our practice there are daily ward rounds manned by very dedicated consultant geriatricians, doctors, nurses and carers who, contrary to what is being alleged, have never experienced any shortage of monitoring or supporting equipment,” the facility continued.

“When patients do require more complex care such as intensive therapy, they are promptly transferred to Mater Dei Hospital. We never purported to offer critical care services.”

A number of patients have died at the Good Samaritan Hospital since it’s opened its doors, the latest being a 94-year-old woman.

“These are very challenging times for everyone, and none are more conscious of this than the front-liners working at the hospital. Not least because our patients are frail to start with, but also because medical staff live with the very danger of being infected themselves,“ the facility said.

“This is especially true while providing care to cognitively impaired patients who are incapable of understanding that they’re contagious. All this compounds the unpleasant nature and severity of the disease.”

“Surely, stigmatising frontliners who have contracted COVID-19 does not help.”

In light of growing scepticism towards the facility, the relative of an 81-year-old patient who was transferred to the home filed a judicial protest, urging the health authorities to move his aunt from Good Samaritan to Karin Grech Hospital.

“We are doing an excellent job but we do not claim or expect to be perfect in the circumstances,” the facility concluded.

“We welcome constructive criticism. The least we expect however, is that we do not also have to alleviate unfounded concerns among the elderly at GSH and their families which stem from misinformation and prejudice by people who have hidden or political agendas.”

“It is only serving to fuel further anxiety among the affected elderly and their families.”

What do you make of this?

READ NEXT: Tumas Group Investigating Who Paid For Joseph Muscat’s And Minister’s Stay At French Hotel

You may also love

View All