The outpatients’ parking area at the hospital is set aside almost entirely for ‘disabled’ badge holders – quite rightly, since many people, like myself, are unable to walk long distances.

Because of the limited number of spaces available, I have for some time made sure that when I have a morning appointment I arrive early – no later than 7.15am. Arriving later than this means every single space is taken and that one often has to queue for more than an hour before a space is available.

I have noted that the sudden influx of cars displaying a blue sticker occurs when the staff change their shift, leading to only one conclusion – that most of these people are using a blue sticker probably ‘borrowed’ from a family member. It appears that the security personnel at the hospital are aware of the situation but apparently they are not permitted to check the photo on the rear of the blue sticker to ensure that the person using the car is indeed the genuine badge holder; they insist this can only be done by the police.

I suggest that for a short period every day – say between 7 and 8am – a police officer should be on duty in the parking area to check whether the blue stickers displayed belong to the car drivers.

I believe that a few days of this, followed by frequent spotchecks, would go a long way towards stopping staff members (who after all have the whole of the underground parking zones -1 and -2 set aside for them) from using abusively, from an early hour, almost all of the outpatients’ parking area.

In any case, as anyone visiting Mater Dei will know, the underground parking zones -3 and -4 are completely packed from an early hour and, more importantly, involve a long walk to finally reach the outpatients’ departments.