From Mr J. N. Borg

I find it very difficult to understand the motive behind Saviour Balzan’s crusade to discredit Mater Dei. For the second week running, he urges people with anything worth mentioning about Mater Dei to come forward.

I for one have had two close relatives treated there recently and I cannot, in any way, fault the treatment received. Actually, the treatment compares very well to treatments I have seen delivered here in the UK, mainland Europe and the United States.

With regard to Mrs Micallef’s broken wrist, Mr Balzan needs to recognise the way trauma operating lists work worldwide. Trauma lists are all about clinical priority. There are often sicker, older, anaesthetic risk patients or children and young patients with more severe injuries. Of course, ideally no one should wait but that is not the reality in any busy State hospital anywhere. Prioritisation is up to the surgeon and not to relatives, politicians or media.

To my mind it is appalling that such an unfortunate event was used to fill up the best part of three pages of a national Sunday newspaper. I can assure Mr Balzan that embarking on anecdote collection is not the right way to improve clinical practice; there are other well proven methods to do so, presuming Mr Balzan has the patients’ best interest at heart.

J. N. Borg

Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon

LONDON

UK