Bad appointments system

I am always very pleased to read letters indicating how good our hospital is and, without a shadow of doubt, the majority of inpatients receive an extremely good service.

However, I just wish to highlight the plight of the poor outpatients who are treated worse than cattle. When one arrives for, let us say, a 10.15 a.m. appointment at the Outpatients Orthopaedic Department the waiting area is like the market place in Baghdad: not enough seats are available and people are just herded in corners by the security staff.

At 10.15, the patients with the 8.30 appointment are called to yet another waiting area. How can it be that there is already a two-hour delay? At noon, the 10.15s are called to yet another waiting area, eventually to be led again to yet another waiting area at about 1 p.m., only to set out on the last part of the journey at about 1.45 to get to see the junior doctor on behalf of the specialist and receive a simple result which required no further action by the hospital and which could have been sent by post.

A delay of over three hours is not acceptable, especially when the patient is not kept updated about any delays. Patients are just ignored as if they do not exist. This is not a complaint about Mater Dei Hospital but about the appointment system that causes people to wait for hours on end.