Despite heavy security, which has now been stepped up further, there has been a spate of vandalism at Mater Dei Hospital.

Air-conditioning ducts have been spliced, and some wires connecting equipment were found to be cut and, in at least one case, the words ‘Gonzi l….’ were found daubed on a wall.

While defaced walls can be painted over, repairs to air-conditioning and medical equipment can pose problems. In some of the cases of vandalism, the equipment had not yet been commissioned and officially handed over to the government, so the contractor had to carry out the repairs himself.

This has made the hospital authorities beef up security higher, even though Mater Dei has always been relatively heavily guarded. It now promises to be even more so: there are security cameras almost everywhere now, and far more security personnel doing the rounds at any given time.

It would seem that this level of security will be carried over when the hospital becomes operational – a far cry in itself from the very lax attitude that prevails at St Luke’s both by day and especially by night.

Even so, however, despite all this increased security, these are very hectic days at the new hospital as people working for the contractors and carrying out the finishing work rub shoulders with technicians and experts handing over the equipment to the government’s medical personnel, while the people who will be manning the new hospital are trained on the procedures that will be used there.

All this means the site is now ‘invaded’ by hundreds, if not thousands, of workers every day – sometimes even staying there late into the night, as the illuminated wards and rooms can testify.

But that pales into comparison with a normal day’s invasion of people at St Luke’s, and this is what the new hospital will get, once it is fully operational. The new security systems will need to cope with this huge influx.