From Mr J. Looms

I have just come out of Saint Luke’s Hospital. I was hospitalised from 25 May to 1 June. My first comment is that I could not have wished for a better service than that provided by the doctors and staff of M5.

The second is a complaint; my mobile phone was stolen from my drawer in my bedroom while I lay unconscious on 30 May. It was reported to the staff and to the police, who were notified that it was a very expensive phone. No response relating to the report (7/P/1963/2005) from the police or from the hospital was forthcoming, considering that it was reported to both the Valletta and Sliema police stations.

As I am a stroke victim in a wheelchair, I asked to be wheeled down to the switchboard. I asked to make an international call to close my account with Orange company in England (a bill which I pay every month) but I was not allowed. I don’t know whether any phone calls were made during this period, as the company had not been asked to close the account. They would not let me do this as the manager said it was government policy not to allow any overseas calls. I offered to pay there and then, or for them to send me a bill to make this indispensable call. I am aware that these rulings were applied in order to avoid abuse, but rules should also be there to safeguard honest use.

My concern is that, while a government decision was applied to one’s inability to make an overseas phone call from the hospital, the same directive did not provide security in the hospital in order to try and find a stolen object. I am really upset at the way I was not helped when I asked for assistance. As a new citizen of Malta I felt that this was a very bad way to treat a human being, and I don’t think that the same would have happened if a Maltese had been in an English hospital in a similar situation.

James Looms

VALLETTA