Good reasons for pathologists' shortage

The health authorities are reported (February 17) to have finally noticed that a shortage of pathologists is relevant to the proper running of a hospital and that they are now trying to resolve the problem. In only one year, a few years back, three consultant surgical pathologists, including myself, resigned from the public service due to very poor work conditions.

Surgical pathologists examine tissues removed from patients by surgeons and other proceduralists in order to establish the exact nature of a patient's organic disease so that treatment can be planned. A good proportion of these surgical pathology consultations are intended to confirm or exclude cancer and the speciality is therefore crucial in a hospital's work and requires considerable experience to be practised safely.

The very poor working conditions I experienced in the Maltese public service included a laughable salary, a pitiful pension system, an obstructively cumbersome, slow-to-act and blinkered administration and a great shortage of junior pathologists. The latter meant that consultant surgical pathologists had to waste their time doing work which in well-run centres overseas is carried out by junior medical trainees. I wish my successors at Mater Dei Hospital a better work experience than mine.