I write to complain in the strongest possible terms about the Accident and Emergency (A&E) department at Mater Dei Hospital.

My daughter had been suffering of severe abdominal pain and gastric flu and her doctor informed us she should go to Accident and Emergency at Mater Dei, as there was nothing more he could do for her.

We arrived at 12.45 p.m. and proceeded to wait and wait and wait… We were not alone. There were about a dozen other cases, varying from a badly infected tattoo on a lady’s foot, a severely inflamed and infected leg from an insect bite to a cut lip on an elderly patient, requiring stitches.

I thought we would have to wait for a few hours and would be out by 5 p.m. Instead, unbelievably, my daughter was still waiting to be seen eight hours later and was seen by the duty doctor at 9 p.m.

At around 4 p.m. the doctor disappeared and nobody was admitted to the sacred portals of Room Three for about two hours.

What is going on? Is the hospital severely understaffed?

How on earth can you run an Accident and Emergency department without a doctor for periods of time? Surely there should be two duty doctors to reduce the queues and to take over if one is called on an emergency?

Please note that this state of affairs is ‘normal’. So-called non-emergency cases can expect to wait on average for eight hours.

The situation is dire and the hospital management should investigate the system and reorganise it.