I refer to Frank Galea’s letter about visitor parking at Mater Dei Hospital (August 6).

I sympathise entirely with Mr Galea because not finding a parking space in proximity of where one wants to go can truly be an exasperating experience. This is particularly true of a hospital which, as Mr Galea states, is not generally a destination for capricious visits. The visitor parking at Mater Dei Hospital is regularly monitored in terms of available space and I am informed that the visitor car park was full to capacity on two occasions during the past three weeks – with vehicle turnover across visitor areas rendering parking spaces available in under five minutes of such capacity having being reached.

I will not enter into the merits of Mr Galea’s other comments because I believe that these are essentially subjective and not entirely reflective of the situation. I will say, however, that parking provision at Mater Dei Hospital depends largely upon an intricate balance of interests between staff and visitors. Car park space in every car park is finite.

I would like to take this opportunity to invite Mr Galea to communicate with me should he feel the need to discuss this issue further. I will be more than happy to consider any suggestions that Mr Galea may wish to make following his upsetting experience at Mater Dei Hospital.