Tuesday, 7th July 2009

Writing in defence of consultant's reputation

John Bickle, Swieqi

I read in disbelief the claim by a couple that a consultant, Massimo Abela, refused to treat a patient after he was told the lady used to visit a Chinese masseuse.

I have been a patient of Dr Abela for some time now and am proud to say that he has been treating me and members of my family successfully for quite some time.

I am thankful of his services and his very assertive diagnosis and treatment. Dr Abela does believe in alternative medicine, contrary to what the people in their judicial protest seem to be suggesting, as long as the service being offered is legitimate and approved by the medical authorities.

Dr Abela has a very outgoing personality, he is full of life, fun loving and in my opinion is anything but arrogant. I still cannot believe how anyone can label him so. I also know of cases where he did not accept payment for his services, so I cannot see him refusing to see any patient for whatever reason possible.

I am sure that this attempt to harm Dr Abela's reputation will not be taken seriously by his many satisfied patients.

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Article © Allied Newspapers Ltd., printed on Sunday, November 22, 2009. This article is for personal use only, and should not be distributed.

Comments

Anna Duca (on 8/7/09)

My son was treated by Dr Massimo Abela last year, both him and myslef think he was very patient, and very professional. My son is a young adult but he is not too fond of hospitals and doctors in general yet Dr Abela took the trouble to put him at ease, and make his operation as comfortable as possible. He was reading to-day's paper and asked if this is the same doctor who treated him, he could not believe how someone as tolerant and patient as Dr Abela could be labelled as arrogant. We are very thankful for his services and hope these people who complained will see the other side of the coin.

Fredrick Sammut (on 7/7/09)

With all due respect to Dr. Abela, who is undoubtly an ethical and competent consultant, and with whom I empathise profusely, patients have the right to enforce their rights.

Maybe this should NOT have been a court case, but who are we to judge? Sometimes we are too deferent towards the medical professionals, especially consultants. Being defiant when you feel you should have been treated better is no wrong and sometimes the only way to obtain redress is to go to court.

Look at the US and the UK. Medical negligence litigation is huge. Is the patient always wrong to complain then? Of course not. It is in their best interest to do so if things seem wrong. No medical professional is infallible, and medicine is not an exact science, but there is also plenty of uncontrolled medical negligence out there for one reason or another.

There is a lot to learn from a case like this. Time for some introspection within the medical profession and reinforcement of the General Medical Council's regulations amongst the medical professionals.

M. Żammit (on 7/7/09)

This makes me think... should something like this be reported in the media before the courts decide on the matter? Had the court decided on the matter against Dr Abela, I would still not agree that it is in the interest of the general public to know something like this especially if it was a one off incident. Obviously the hospital authorities would deal with such a matter.

So the question is why did the media report this? If the media feels it should report on every workplace incident then perhaps there is nothing of interest to report and in that case might as well report the good that is done.

i.cilia (on 7/7/09)

Agreed.

I had the pleasure (well as pleasurable as surgery can be) of being treated by Mr Abela.

Very professional and caring, as well as fun and positive.

I too found this rather difficult to accept, and to be honest I think that there must be something else behind this. Or else Mr Abela was having a bad day, which everyone is entitled to..

but taking him to court!!!!

And lady who was injured, if you go to a chinese practitioner, many of whom are not exactly approved of by the medical people in Malta what do you expect. Compare this (a bit crude I know but you get the gist) to invalidating your new car's warranty because instead of going to the main dealer you went to Zeppu tal kantuniera for a service. They invalidate your warranty and throw you out of the building, even though have paid for the warranty...

Same happened here..

ah well. Seem that people have a lot of time on their hands lately...

Writing in defence of consultant's reputation

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