Incident at hospital

I refer to the letter by Alexandra Gayford (June 18) complaining about the behaviour of G4S security personnel at Mater Dei Hospital's accident and emergency department last month.

G4S personnel are there to serve the public while fulfilling the vital role of maintaining order. Each security officer stationed at Mater Dei Hospital has received specific training to deal with such situations. The procedure is clear: security personnel always act under orders from the nursing officer, who is the person responsible for the A&E department.

Both G4S and the hospital administration carried out a thorough investigation of this complaint, including taking written statements of those on duty when the alleged incident occurred. According to these statements, at no point in time were the G4S security personnel rude, arrogant nor did they raise their voices. If anything, it was the visitors who did the very thing they accused the G4S personnel of doing, apart from also resorting to foul language.

The alleged incident stemmed from an order from the nursing officer to G4S personnel to clear the cubicles of extra visitors since, according to hospital regulations, only one visitor is allowed in each cubicle with the patient. Visitors in all the other cubicles obeyed directions from the G4S personnel, except those with Ms Gayford's mother. One person would surely have been sufficient to act as a translator if this were necessary.

The fact that they were in a public hospital, and were foreigners, does not entitle them to special treatment and the reason the cubicles are cleared is to enable the hospital staff to carry on with their work as efficiently as possible, for the benefit of the same patients.