I refer to a letter titled “Managerial incompetence at St Luke’s” by Victor Spiteri (TMIS, 19 March).

The appointment procedures at the orthopaedic outpatients department is not as described by Mr Spiteri. It is not true at all that appointments are all scheduled for the same time. As a matter of fact, appointments are scheduled at intervals of 15 minutes each.

From investigations carried out by the hospital authorities, it resulted that Mr Spiteri originally had an appointment for Thursday 2 March, which he failed to turn up for. He called the customer care department later and asked them to fix an appointment for him to be seen by the consultant as soon as possible.

Thus, when Mr Spiteri turned up on Tuesday 14 March, his was an over-booked appointment, that is an extra case over those scheduled for that day. It should also be pointed out that Mr Spiteri was seen by Mr Gatt in good faith over and above his normal scheduled work load for that day.

Tonio Bonello

Head Information/Communications

St Luke’s – Sir Paul Boffa – Mater Dei Hospitals