Nurses at Mater Dei Hospital were extremely concerned after discovering that a patient disappeared from Medical Ward 1 earlier this week.

But further investigations concluded that the patient was safe and sound at his family home in St Julian’s. The patient is understood to have discharged himself from hospital without informing anyone, bypassing normal procedure.

When asked whether this boiled down to a lack of security at the hospital, Parliamentary Secretary Chris Fearne said that patients are not under some kind of surveillance by security guards but the least one can do in the event a patient wants to discharge him/herself from hospital is to inform hospital staff and to fill in a discharge form before leaving.