People who need hospital treatment need all the support they can get from their families and friends.

A stay in hospital is never welcome, although the facilities that we now have at Mater Dei Hospital makes it more comfortable.

The level of care that is given to all patients at the hospital is one that should make us proud. Doctors, nurses and paramedical staff go out of their way to give the best possible treatment to the people under their care. A joke or two never goes amiss as the staff tries to lighten the mood in the wards.

In instances when a patient’s stay in hospital lasts for a number of weeks, a bond grows between the staff and the patient and it is heartening to see that this relationship sometimes turns into a kind of friendship.

But, sometimes, this is not enough for the patient. Apart from the physical ailments that patients are facing, they also need moral and psychological support, and this can only be offered to them by the people who know them best, and whom they trust.

Too often, patients are left on their own with their own thoughts, fears and doubts, as their relatives and friends do not find the time to visit. Several patients are seen, day in day out, without anyone by their bedside. Sometimes one can see the hurt in their eyes when they see the patients next to them getting one visit after another, while they are on their own for hours on end.

Those who cannot leave their bed because of their condition are the worse off, because they spend all their time looking at the ceiling, simply doing nothing. Being in a hospital often leads one to lose interest in matters that are normally part of that person’s daily routine or pastime – and hobbies like reading, doing crosswords, surfing the internet and watching television are set aside, even when there is so much “free time” to pursue these interests.

It does not take so much to visit a relative or a friend in hospital. It may bring on a smile that was missing, or a memory that had been forgotten. Most of all, it means that half an hour goes by quickly.

On a hospital bed, with nothing to do, each second lasts a minute.