COVID-19 patients should be moved out of Mater Dei into a specialised hospital to reduce the risk posed to non-coronavirus patients, medical doctor Frank Portelli has proposed.

“Mater Dei has postponed regular procedures because it has become a hot-spot; you can go there for an operation and risk getting COVID-19,” Portelli said in a video last Friday. “Mater Dei must become Covid-free so treatments can keep on being given.”

https://www.facebook.com/frankportelli2bfrank/videos/10157709605474109

“Around 900 people die of heart conditions every year and more could die because they’re scared go to Mater Dei. If your [medical] problem is a routine one, you can afford to wait, but if it’s a heart condition you often can’t wait, so it’s essential that we make Mater Dei Covid-free if we want to win.”

Portelli owns St Philip’s Hospital, a former private hospital in Santa Venera. Last March, he said he was ready to refurbish the building within eight weeks and lease it out to the government for the treatment of COVID-19 patients on a non-profit basis, but his offer wasn’t taken on board.

This time, Portelli didn’t mention his own hospital but proposed the refurbishing of St Luke’s Hospital, run by Steward Healthcare, into a centre to treat all COVID-19 patients.

“Right now, all our hospitals are housing COVID-19 patients. Positive patients should be housed in one place, such as St Luke’s, and not spread out over six hospitals.”

He also urged the government to beef up the human resources at the national contact tracing and testing teams and called on Superintendent of Public Health Prof. Charmaine Gauci to “stand up” to Prime Minister Robert Abela.

“Theres no doubt the Superintendent is a nice person but she needs to show her mettle; she must be firm and not be afraid of any Prime Minister. She has a lot of responsibility on her shoulders and it cannot be that politicians dominate her because certain businessmen accuse people like me of spreading fear.”

“We’re in an economic crisis because we slipped up and the government must be responsible. We were doing well at the start but government isn’t taking the advice of front-liners.”

What do you make of this proposal?