A woman has described the “disgusting” state of the seclusion ward at Mount Carmel mental health hospital after she spent about 10 days in a “cell” with nothing but a thin mattress to sleep on and a squat toilet with no flushing.
The woman, who took photos of the bare cell, said she was kept in the seclusion ward because she had tested positive for coronavirus.
Sources familiar with the psychiatric hospital confirmed the photos are genuine and that the ward was repurposed to host COVID-positive patients.
The woman, who is bipolar and preferred not to be named, explained that at the end of November she was admitted to Mater Dei Hospital for health reasons. At around the same time, her mother passed away.
The association of psychiatrists has described Mount Carmel Hospital as not fit for purpose and called for a temporary mental health hospital until the promised new one is built next to Mater Dei.
Concern about the state of the Attard hospital has made headlines over recent years and most of its ceilings were condemned by architects in 2019.
The spotlight was back on the hospital this week when a 20-year-old Dutch woman wrote of her eight-day experience at the facility.
“It was hell,” Belle de Jong, who was an inpatient last February, said. In a blogpost at sidestreetmalta.com, she spoke of communal showering reminiscent of German concentration camps, dirty and depressing common areas, a chaotic distribution of medication, lack of fresh air and being stripped naked for a drug check.