The ordeal experienced by patients at hospital has to be seen to be believed. Attending hospital at the appointed time set by the authorities who also recommend punctuality is absolutely useless and a waste of time.

As a rule, a patient accompanied by a second person will often have to wait for lengthy periods before his name is called out to enter the clinic to see a consultant or his assistant.

This is all a waste of valuable time for both individuals and could surely be avoided through a proper system of management and planning.

Now that John Dalli has been tasked with reforming our hospital services this is surely the right time to delve deeply into and investigate this intolerable state of affairs and recommend solutions. Hopefully, Dalli and the authorities will leave no stone unturned to put an end to the sufferings of patients. Success in this respect can only be achieved if the consultants and their assistants are prepared to cooperate fully and unconditionally to rationalise and improve the situation.

There seems to be no logical reason why what is practised effectively overseas, especially in UK hospitals, should not be applicable and adopted locally. Most of our consultants are UK-trained and are therefore accustomed to the principle that patients’ rights should be first and foremost above every other consideration.

This much-needed reform would save patients unnecessary inconvenience, suffering and waste of time at what is surely the most crowded and essential sector of the hospital, the reception area.