With banks doing a disappearing act on the public, one bastion remains at the forefront of services provided on a national scale and that is public health services. 

Beyond the nurses, doctors and aides that are essential to our treatment, there is the first encounter, the back bone of the whole system.  That is, the security person from the contracted agency. 

Your experience at the hospital or clinic or indeed other offices such as ARMS offices or internet providers, will depend very much on the quality and friendliness of the security person at the door or on the floors and corridors.  Cooperation is essential.

These security personnel have a role to play which can change your perception, make you feel safe or notch up your nerves a bit more than your coffee-less morning can handle.  What goes on at the hospital or health clinics is an experience like no other.  It transcends our differences, draws a common bond between people and makes children of us again as we entrust ourselves to the professionals that will be at our service. 

In general, Maltese people are submissive to the demands made on us to oblige and comply with the system in place.  Going from one level to another, from the invitation letter with your appointment, to receiving the ticket stub at the door of the health clinic and waiting outside until you’re called.  That is our first encounter with the security, at the door.  Then we move to the reception and from there to the floor where we are ushered to a waiting room with coloured seats.  Automatically, you head to a vacant chair and prepare yourself to wait for a while.  In comes the security guru who tells you to get up and go and sit in the next vacant chair beside the patient before you.  You stare at him a little, querying the purpose for this, but you get up and move.  Then the lady at the head of the train is called to go to the corridor and take up a new position there.  So, the whole group of persons in the waiting room now has to move up a seat in order to maintain order. 

Just like a German Shepherd corralling sheep, he stuck to his guns and moved us into our pen.  Now we would wait standing up outside the door where we must first enter to get the stickers for the test tubes.  Rather than calling us in one after the other as the office emptied from one patient to another, we were on stand-by to immediately dive into the office the moment the person before us exited from their turn.

One lovely elderly woman was anxious because she had not received the letter with the appointment and feared she might not be able to receive the treatment she was there for.  German Shepherd was there to calm her down and tell her it will be ok.  So, she felt better.  In the absence of family members who are there to escort their parents or spouse, the man or woman in the blue sweater becomes the presence that has to serve as your director and your neighbour. 

It is a cosmos to itself.  There is a language that is second nature to many but completely new to others.  All these Maltese phrases, like “ghad-demm” or “ghal wolferina” or glaucoma are handy to know your way around.  Following that, there is a certain behaviour which you are expected to demonstrate.  That is, patience, submissive and a little chatty.  You cannot question instructions, ever.  You will probably have to put away your mobile phone and watch the silent cooking on TV or nod to the noisy pensioner.

From then on, you are in the hands of the nursing staff who do a very good job of sticking a needle in you without inflicting pain.  Carefully following instructions on keeping the arm in a salute position, you are done and free to navigate back out of the busy bleeding room and go out again into the world. 

As you walk up the road a few metres, you find another group of security persons.  This time they are around road works and have to move the plastic barriers to let some residents’ cars pass through. 

Further on, they are standing by a crane or a façade of a building lot.  It is rather rare to find them at banks today, since we are generally kept in the pen by the ATM machines but they are there too and will bear the brunt of your frustration.

Between the security chaps and the food delivery scooter guys, basically, our needs are catered for and anything above that will wait for another day and another time.  Leave free will at the door.  If you want to get served without any problems, put aside your mind, zip your tongue and be ready to help others. 

At the end of the day, it all comes down to being neighbourly and these past years of the pandemic have shown us that we are all vulnerable and quite ordinary.  The happiness index of the country falls largely on how good our health service is, then our schools and after that peace at home and with our neighbours.  The next most important factor is jobs and hobbies. 

But above all, security staff rule!  It is their kingdom.  Anything else is for another day. 

Surely you will be meeting a few of them today!