I am writing from Mater Dei, where for the third time I have been a patient. I wish to encourage the management and all who work there by making some objective comments on a recent article in your paper on admission to Mater Dei Hospital.

For 30 years, out of my 40 years in Milan, I was responsible for the Scientific University Hospital San Raffaele, which originally had to be established in Malta. Comparisons are uncalled for, however at the moment I am receiving excellent professional care from the Dialysis Unit and the Cardiac Unit.

A hospital of excellence in Malta was my dream and brainchild which I had suggested to the government and San Raffaele accepted the proposal. With the Foundation of Medical Services and former minister Louis Galea, we worked hard for 10 years after we selected the present site.

What is important is that we now have a hospital, which my evaluation is that of “diligence”, though as Kennedy used to repeat: “We all can do a little better and that little makes the difference.” This may be applied to the various sectors of Mater Dei.

I see from this experience more positive than negative, but we all, government and the public in general, have to endeavour to improve the services and the human relations between doctors, nurses and patients.

Human relationship and communication are imperative for the care of the sick. It often happens that these fail to the detriment of patients

As Fr. Luigi Verze used to say: “It is not the walls, the marble or the highly advanced technology that makes a hospital, but the women and men that work therein.”

How true this is as a source of motivation for working in a hospital as a true vocation.

In my book L-Etika b’Risq il-Marid, published in four languages, copies of which I sent to the minister and the parliamentary secretary with a proposal for a new publication, my focus was on ‘bedside ethics’.

Human relationship and communication are imperative for the care of the sick. It often happens that these fail to the detriment of patients. Constant in-service training and experience are imperative. This was a must in Milan. Credits converted into a bonus were awarded.

Our original idea was to make it a hospital of care and research for the Mediterranean, for one has not only to cure but also, through research, to go to the roots of a disease.

A Science Park would be ideal, but alas this also failed. Quite rightly, clinical director Joseph Zarb Adami emphasised the need for “ensuring the increase in patient number did not result in a drop in quality. The use of human resources, the operating theatres and the surgical interventions would result that patients are sent home on the same day”.

This is not an easy challenge but indicates the goodwill of management to make Mater Dei an institute of excellence. However, as recently remarked by Archbishop Scicluna: “Patients are not numbers.”

In any institute, problems such as the waiting list crop up. Management seems to want to overcome this hurdle and there are ways how to do it as I learned from experience in Milan, though the same problem exists in other hospitals.

Today, I am proud of our doctors, nurses and staff, but there is need for improvement through bedside ethics, remembering our motto, which says: Jesus, Deus Patiens, the Patient is the Suffering Jesus.

Mgr Charles Vella is founder of the Cana Movement and former director of San Raffaele Hospital, Milan.

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