I used to wonder why sick people being treated in hospitals are called patients. Not any more. After the Mater Dei saga, I came to realise that you have to be patient; very patient indeed; to bide the long wait to be treated in this state-of-the-art hospital which has everything but.

Some even ask what’s the use of buses at the Mater Dei, when there are still no patients and no visitors there. But others, more cynical, say that those are just there to take people for a ride!

Vincent Piccinino

Valletta