With reference to the article ‘Elective operations may be postponed this week’ (The Sunday Times of Malta, April 12), I would like to inform Jean Paul Gauci, who heads the Health Division of the UĦM, that nobody has an operation for fun. If people are waiting for a knee or hip replacement, it is because they are in acute pain.

I have had two knee replacements in seven years and I most certainly would not have gone through all the post-operation pain unless it was a matter of urgency.

Mr Gauci said: “It doesn’t make a difference if a patient does this operation today or in a week’s time. They have a waiting list of around a year, so the delay is an inconvenience, yes, but it’s not going to impinge on one’s health.” I find this very offensive and disrespectful.

If he had gone through even one tenth of the pain these patients go through he would realise that even a one-day delay is too long.

I hope that this problem will be resolved soon for everyone’s sake and that perhaps one day we’ll reach a situation where no one will have to wait even a year for such operations.