Accident and Emergency staffing

The response of the secretary of the Medical Association of Malta, Martin Balzan, to our letter (The Sunday Times, November 21) neither answers the issues highlighted nor addresses the problem created by the recent instruction, resulting in a reduced complement of Accident and Emergency doctors in the morning.

We will not try to trace the gothic routes by which this instruction finally reached the Accident and Emergency Department, signed by a hospital administrator.

We refer Dr Balzan to a letter we sent requesting consultation addressed by e-mail to his president, Stephen Fava, at two different addresses, first on February 28 and then on March 5, as well as by normal post on the earlier date. Our communications were not even shown the simple courtesy of an acknowledgement, nor were our nominees to take part in the discussions approached. I have just returned from the 20th anniversary celebrations of the Section of Accident of Emergency Medicine at the Royal Society of Medicine in London, which I founded as well as serving as its secretary and president. It was heartening to see how respected my colleagues in the field in Malta are and of concern to learn of the efforts being made to entice many of them away from here.

May I be allowed to credit the entire medical profession in Malta for a successful move to Mater Dei Hospital.

Of course, some adjustment has been made and more will be required, but the relative low key in which it has featured in the media, is the best proof of its success. In only the first 12 hours of the opening of Mater Dei, over 200 patients presented themselves at the Accident and Emergency Department, scores of whom required admission.

It is in the patients' and the profession's interest that all such matters are always clear.