From Dr M. Debattista DVM

It was with great sadness and regret that we read Gabriella Arrabito's letter on the tragic and later fatal experience of the dog hit by a car in Balzan on 1 March (TMIS, 5 March). We agree that in today's day and age, with the great help often offered by members of the public, telecom technology and the availability of veterinarians on the island, such cases should not occur.

The Malta Veterinary Association (MVA) arranges for veterinarians to be available day and night, seven days a week, on a roster basis. It is not the MVA who receive the 5004 3888 call. The call has to pass through a local telecom company and then through a pager company, which forwards the message to the Vet on duty. We have looked into what went wrong in this particular case and, while the operator company have records that the message was sent, it seems that due to a technical fault Ms Arrabito’s first call was never received by the Vet on duty. That same morning he had already seen to three other emergencies via the 24hr Vet service, the callers were contacted immediately and the dogs were examined and treated. In the case of Ms Arrabito’s call, the fall back system of phoning the coordinator Veterinarian on mobile was, unfortunately, not utilised by the service provider when it had become obvious that there was a problem.

Sadly, it is too late to change the destiny of the poor dog and we shall continue to improve the system to try and avoid such an incident ever happening again.

The 24-hr system is not entirely flawless but when we looked at other alternatives they were not ideal. The pity is that, as often happens in these cases, the huge number of calls that are attended to, even in the middle of the night, weekends and public holidays do not get the same media exposure. This imbalance in reporting could shed a bad light on an otherwise good and essential service.

We fully appreciate the hurt one feels when living through such an experience, but we cannot agree with Ms Arrabito’s statement on the “way that animals are treated on the island”. There are a large number of voluntary groups that care for stray dogs, countless individuals who care for cat colonies around the island and so many members of the general public who do pick up an injured or lost animal and go to the Vet for medical care either via the 24hr system or through normal clinic hours.

Martin Debattista

President

Malta Veterinary Association