Foreign couple's frustration at Maltese-only Mater Dei website

Having an opinion and being a radio presenter can be a dangerous thing! Many people have stepped into this particular "pothole" before me, and I truly hope my comments are taken in the correct way.

My fiancée recently broke the news to me that I am to be a proud father in December! It was one of the proudest moments in my life to date, and the thought of being a daddy and raising a child with the woman I love is something that takes my breath away, and makes me smile every single day.

But that smile is wiped from my face pretty quickly when we try to contact the people we need to in order to prepare for this life-changing event.

Now allow me to point out that I never ever forget that we as foreigners (both English) are living in a foreign country and things are inevitably going to be done differently (and the way the NHS is being run in the UK at the moment, better!).

But being passed from pillar to post in a foreign country with a baby on the way is hardly good for the stress levels, and it makes us very apprehensive about what kind of service and help will be forthcoming between now and December. Some people may say, "Go back to England then", or "Go private" but the fact is, we live here, this is home to us now.

My case in point is the wonderful new facility Mater Dei. As a new state-of-the art hospital should be, it looks very impressive, but why is it, I ask, that the website and all its vital information is available only in Maltese? I know, we're in Malta, that's the obvious answer, but my partner and I are not the only foreigners on the island, and we certainly are not the only foreigners that need to make use of this facility. We need access to this information!

The only thing we as foreigners know about Mater Dei is the phone numbers and the bulletins telling us how successful the migration from St Luke's was.

Would it have been too much to ask to have the option of the website being available in both Maltese and English, just like the ATM machines, all travel information, the tourist hotspots, the hotel information etc.?

I hope readers can understand that as first-time parents, we're nervous and want to speak to some experts, we have so many questions! So we called the gynae outpatients line and were told "sorry, call back tomorrow between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Does this particular department close? I don't know! We couldn't keep anyone on the line long enough to help!

We pay tax, we pay our NI, yet should we be feeling like we're quite alone in all this? We have been scouring the internet to find information to help us prepare, reading books, speaking to parents, but all we want to do is speak to the people who are meant to be by our side and helping us through the pregnancy, just like every other person that's had a child here.