Lack of space at Mater Dei is once again being highlighted as one of the main problems in the hospital both by the nurses’ association as well as by some clients of the health service who have experienced the inconvenience. This is as it should be since the people are now reaping the fruit or bad taste of what was sown in the past by evidently incompetent and negligent authorities then responsible for the hospital building brief and its satisfactory execution.

It is as clear as daylight that these grave omissions are now rearing their ugly head due to the insufficient study and implementation of the basic norms in hospital design regulating adequate provision of space and economy in running costs of staff at all levels without impairing operational efficiency.

The latter is mainly achievable by reducing to the lowest possible minimum walking distances and not, as happens to be the case, subjecting them to excessively tiring distances usually reserved for racehorses on the racetrack!

The numerous justified appeals to increase the number of beds should be seriously heeded by substituting immediate effective action for the unending official rhetoric covering past failures and neglect with empty words and promises.

Such is the litmus test for success or otherwise in public administration and in the provision of adequate services, especially in such a vitally important most expensive public building as a national hospital.

As I see it, the building does conform to my belief of what a hospital should be in practice − a first class hotel catering for the sick and infirm. However it fails miserably in providing enough patient bed space and related services both for present day needs and possibly for emergencies that might occur someday.

Edwin Calleja

BALZAN