Crowding in hospital

I would like to offer a few suggestions on how to reduce the chaotic crowding at St Luke's Hospital.

The entrance to the out-patients department is often crowded by the ACC patients. The staff at the ACC work very hard in almost impossible conditions. They give more than 100 per cent.

It is the system that needs to come under scrutiny. Too many people wait all morning for the results to come down from the laboratory and then wait again to be called for the prescription, when a postal system already exists complemented by a telephone call if the dosage of Warfarin needs to be altered.

Is it not possible to post the Warfarin tablets required in the same envelope with the log book to all patients? Alternatively, since these tablets are cheap, can they be dispensed by a local chemist, as a pilot project, for the long awaited reform when all drugs prescribed by the NHS will become obtainable from a local chemist?

This will relieve the crowds at the ACC as well as the government pharmacy.

The first suggestion would also relieve the doctor attending the clinic from the repetitive tedium of writing so many prescriptions; with the help of an assistant nurse, the tablets can be popped into the envelope, saving everybody a lot of hassle. The same applies to the diabetic clinic. I suggest that after the taking of samples, the patient can go home. The analysis by consultants could be conveyed to the patient's doctor with the appropriate advice. That is exactly how the system works in the UK. I do not see why it cannot be made to work here. In the UK a patient does not even need an appointment for the diabetic clinic. You just wait your turn to go into one of half a dozen booths where a nurse is waiting to take the blood and urine samples. The results are conveyed to your doctor two days later.

I sincerely hope that the idiotic management system prevailing at St Luke's is not going to be transferred to Mater Dei. Suffice it to say that despite a computerised appointment system, based on ID numbers, on April 4 I have three appointments:

8 a.m.: Mr Gatt at orthopaedic out patients;

8 a.m.: ACC;

11.42 a.m.: Attard clinic.

Can the superintendent please tell me how I can be present in two places at the same time and make it back in time for the third appointment? If he cannot, should he consider resigning?