People of my generation have been brought up to consider punctuality as both a matter of virtue as well as one of basic courtesy. So If my appointment with a consultant doctor at Mater Dei Hospital is for 10am then one leaves home early enough to drive there, give oneself, say, 15 minutes for parking and, say, another 15 minutes for whatever might go wrong.

But it is then in the latter part of this ‘basic courtesy plan’that whoever were the planners of Mater Dei simply got it terribly wrong.

Last Wednesday morning, I drove into the car park for my 10am appointment at 9am. But it was well past 11.30am that I could actually slot my car into a parking space and switch it off. That means I spent over 90 minutes driving round and round and round the hospital carpark before being able to go to my appointment.

This situation is now simply deplorable and I would urgently ask Health Minister Chris Fearne to get Finance Minister Edward Scicluna to, as early as possible, dispense the necessary funds for the planned new car park that will, hopefully, not be taken over by the hospital’s own staff as two of the present car park’s four floors have actually been.

Parking at Mater Dei is presently simply deplorable, especially during the mornings when most outpatients are called in for visits.