Gone are the summer days when buses to Mater Dei Hospital used to leave empty and return empty, to the derision of the public.

The improved bus service to Mater Dei has become so popular that ADT is putting pressure on the government to boost the service with more and more buses.

The increased popularity of the bus service may also be due to the costs of parking a car in Mater Dei’s ample parking space, government sources told this newspaper. But while the cost of parking a car at Mater Dei is exactly the same as parking a car at St Luke’s Hospital, the latter was so small that few people used it, whereas today the only alternative to parking at Mater Dei is to park in the nearby industrial estate, with varying results, or indeed to use public transport.

The government is also close to announcing a change in the parking price structure sources told this newspaper.

At a reception held at Castille on Friday evening, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi personally thanked all those who were involved in the migration from St Luke’s to Mater Dei. He praised the fact that during migration the health and safety of patients was paramount and that no effort had been spared to make the migration to be smooth and with as few hiccups as humanly possible.