Hospital appointments

With reference to the letter entitled Hospital Appointments by Victor Spiteri (May 18), the hospital authorities would like to clarify this case and comment as follows:

First of all, Mr Spiteri did have an appointment with the Physiotherapy Department on April 25 but, as has been said, this was cancelled due to the indisposition of the physiotherapist.

Mr Spiteri was given another appointment for physiotherapy after he contacted the department. The contact however should have been initiated by the Physiotherapy Department. This was an oversight on the part of the department and any inconvenience is regretted.

There have been three further physiotherapy appointments since this incident, and the last of these appointments was actually on May 18, i.e. the day the letter appeared in The Times.

Mr Spiteri (in conversation with the principal physiotherapist on out-patients) indicated that he was more than pleased with the physiotherapy treatment that he was receiving. With regard to the fact that both appointments were scheduled both at the same day and time, it must be noted that the orthopaedic out-patients and the physiotherapy appointments are made independently of each other. This is because one may attend physiotherapy for a number of weeks or months while attendance at the out-patient clinics is at the discretion of the referring doctor.

With regard to the appointment of Mr Spiteri's wife, there were insufficient details in the letter published for us to be able to investigate the complaint. However, the hospital authorities invite Mrs Spiteri to contact the Customer Care Department on telephone numbers 2595 1543, 2595 1474 or 2595 1183 about this complaint.