The Health Ministry has launched an independent inquiry into claims made by the wife and son of a 76-year-old man who was delivered home in an ambulance wearing just a nappy the day after they took him to hospital.

Minister Joe Cassar also ordered Mater Dei Hospital’s chief executive to submit a detailed report into the incident that ended with Vincent Zammit being dismissed from hospital on Tuesday and returned to his Ħamrun home in an ambulance.

Mr Zammit’s 72-year-old wife, Madlene, welcomed Dr Cassar’s decision to set up of the inquiry “so that the truth would emerge”.

“They did well to investigate this. Such things are not right and should not be allowed to happen,” she said when contacted.

Dr Cassar condemned the incident saying it was “unacceptable” under any condition.

A ministry spokesman said Dr Cassar was in the process of appointing members on the board of inquiry who will look into the incident independently of the hospital.

The hospital report was handed to the minister last night and will now be passed on to the independent board, he said.

Mrs Zammit and her son Jesmond ended up in court on Wednesday for resisting police officers who were called in by an ambulance crew when they loudly objected to the way their relative was treated. They were conditionally discharged after pleading guilty.

Jesmond Zammit, 48, explained that he and his mother had decided to take his father to hospital on Monday evening because he had not been eating and drinking for several days and became faint and delirious. They acted on the advice of their family doctor.

The following day, at about midday, he was told his father would be dismissed.

Mr Zammit and his mother were shocked when the ambulance delivered their father home wearing just a nappy. The clean clothes they had packed for him were still in a bag and the clothes he was wearing when taken to hospital were wet and in a plastic bag. The family objected and the ambulance crew called the police. When the police arrived, an argument ensued between the police and the Zammits who were taken to the police station for questioning and arraigned the following day.

Mrs Zammit said she was worried because her husband was not eating and drinking and she did not know how to care for him. The matter was made worse by the fact that his sugar levels were playing up causing him to act aggressively.

She said the hospital did not want to keep him because her husband refused to undergo medical tests that would help determine his condition.

Her son said the hospital had placed them in a situation where they were just waiting for his father to die.

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