Some people say one thing and then do the complete opposite.

I do not know whether this is done in an attempt to catch others on the wrong foot, or so they think; or because they are simply inconsistent by nature.

Three weeks ago, in the news pages, I had a story about filming at Mater Dei hospital. I wrote that the producers of the TV drama series Emilja, which is broadcast on One TV, were filming in an area outside the permit they had been granted. The health authorities confirmed that they had given permission for footage to be shot in the Renal and Burns Units, but filming also took place in the waiting area outside Surgical Wards 3 and 4. This caused an inconvenience to patients and their families, who refused to be part of the plot, but had to make way for the filming.

One week after the story was published, this newspaper carried a letter by Mark Doneo, a manager at One Productions Ltd. Mr Doneo disassociated himself from the incident, saying that One TV simply transmits Emilja, and has no part in its production.

That same Sunday afternoon, Michael Vella Haber, of Rewind Productions, the company that produces Emilja, called me to express his displeasure that I had had the temerity to publish such a story. I kept telling him that if he had anything to say, he should send a letter to the editor with his version of the events, promising that it would be duly published, as is the case with a serious newspaper such as ours whenever any of its stories is contested.

Dr Vella Haber’s answer – and this he said more than once – was that he “will not entertain me” with a right of reply.

But something must have led him to change his mind because, on the following Saturday, the editor of this newspaper received Rewind Productions’ letter in answer to my story and Mr Doneo’s letter. This was published last Sunday.

So much for sticking to a position taken. But that’s not the real point.

In its letter, Rewind Productions accused me of spinning the story to put Emilja in a bad light. They then went on to state that filming took place outside the Burns Unit and that when they needed to take a different shot, everyone was asked to get behind the camera. Those who were in front of it – including patients – were “jokingly” told to move away.

First of all, I have no interest in spinning stories. What I wrote were the facts. I checked all the information I had received, and the health authorities confirmed what I had been told in hospital – that filming was taking place in an area that was not covered by the permit given to Rewind Productions.

The Emilja producers refer to filming “in the waiting room just outside the Burns Unit”. They are wrong. The Burns Unit is on the third floor of the Yellow section of Mater Dei Hospital, and its waiting room is in the Yellow section. But the footage was being shot in the waiting area leading to the Surgical Wards, on the third floor of the Green section. The back of the Burns Unit leads to this waiting area, but this does not mean that this Green waiting area is part of the Burns Unit.

So the footage was being filmed outside the permit given, to the extent that an investigation was launched by the health authorities into why this had been allowed.

Secondly, and this is the more important thing, one does not “jokingly” tell patients in a hospital to move out of a camera shot, or else remark that they should apply for “an audition” if they happen to be within the camera shot, as Rewind Productions wrote in their letter.

Patients in hospital are not there from choice. They are not on holiday. They are not having fun. Theirs is real life, not a TV drama. They are there because they need treatment, and the last thing they want is to be disturbed by cameras, directors and actors, all milling about as if they owned the place.

It is not a joke to be in hospital, not knowing what will happen the next time a doctor or nurse comes to the side of your bed. Rewind Productions were insensitive and uncaring to “joke” with patients in this way, and to be so proud of their behaviour that they mentioned it in their letter.

Would Dr Vella Haber like to be filmed and subsequently shown on TV in his pyjamas, unshaven, hair uncombed and using a Zimmer frame while recovering from surgery? Is it right that patients should be asked to “move” away just because the director of a TV series does not want them in shot?

The point is that a hospital is for patients, not for filming fiction. If Rewind Productions wanted a hospital environment for their story, they should have created one, and not used a public place such as Mater Dei for their own requirements.

I do not think that a real hospital, such as Mater Dei, should be used for the purposes of filming fiction and the health authorities would be wise to refuse all such requests, on the grounds that nothing should interfere with the work in a hospital. Since the Emilja incident, I was told they have taken a stricter approach, but I would go one step further and turn down all requests for filming at the hospital.

Just imagine this scenario: What if a patient in a ward needs to be taken down to an operating theatre in an emergency? Finding loads of people being filmed for a fictional story in the way does not help. Everyone knows that a few seconds could be fatal. How would the health authorities respond if a life is lost just because there was a camera in the way of the trolley?

A hospital is a place where real life is taking place, where patients are going through a difficult time and where their families are sharing the trauma and trying their best to cope and be positive.

It is not the place for fiction.

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