From Mrs J. Falzon

I am sure that the pleasure and pride in Mater Dei Hospital that most people will feel when they first visit will quickly evaporate – at least if they have travelled there by car – when they find out how much it has cost them to park in what, incidentally, is still an unfinished car park, with an abysmal lack of signs indicating how you get out, either to enter the hospital on foot or to leave by car.

I understand that the first 20 minutes of parking is free. Well – it takes around 10 minutes to reach many of the wards, and that is on your second or more visit: the first time it takes much longer as you find your way around! So 20 minutes free parking is basically an insult. In fact, everyone visiting a patient will be parked for at least an hour – which will cost them 60c. Up to 1½ hours costs Lm1; up to 2½ hours Lm1.75; up to three hours Lm2; up to four hours Lm2.30 and four or more hours Lm3.

The car park is, of course, run by private enterprise – so the hapless visitor does not even have the debatable satisfaction of knowing that he or she is contributing to the hospital’s running costs!

I spent an entire afternoon sitting at the bedside of a friend after her return to the ward from surgery. Neither of us is as young as we were and, understandably, she wanted someone with her as she drifted in and out of sleep in that post-op haze of confusion.

The Lm3 I paid for parking my car is hardly going to break my or any other bank and, in any event, it was a one-off. It is the principle that offends me. It can easily be argued that parking at a State hospital, especially one that is not near anything else, should be free of charge: no one is going to park at Mater Dei to go shopping. However, even hospital car parks cost money to run but they should certainly not be run at a profit. In my opinion, it is making a profit from people’s misery – which is at best unkind and at worst despicable. I spoke to one man whose child was a patient and who had visited four times that day and had had to pay Lm8! Lm8 to visit your sick child!

Some re-thinking needs to be done – and quickly. The gentleman to whom I spoke at City Park Malta Ltd – which are operating the car park – told me that the charges were “nothing to do with us” and had been established by “government” – which I found surprising. I suggest that a flat rate of, say, 50c should be charged to cover expenses – which would be perfectly acceptable, and would not be abused, because no one will use the car park unless they are visiting a patient, and they will stay for no longer than they have to.

Judith Falzon

MELLIEHA