10 years ago - The Times
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Ombudsman lambasts authorities, consultants
Hospital waiting lists remain “shrouded by a thick veil of unaccountable criteria” according to the Ombudsman.
The system used by the public health service to draw up patient waiting lists for operations is “inadequately documented and marked by lack of transparency and accountability,” he said in a document that refers to a complaint he investigated.
His strong words may not be of solace to people who have been waiting for ages to undergo an operation but they spell out the facts clearly and unashamedly. The investigation refers to a complaint lodged by a foreign prison inmate who was put on a waiting list in 2002 and six years later was still waiting to be operated upon. The hospital authorities admitted that they have no control on the way waiting lists for operations at the hospital are established.
The Ombudsman found that waiting lists are kept on the appointments diary of individual consultants and only in ophthalmic and cardiac cases are the lists of pending operations recorded in a centralised system.
The hospital authorities admitted it was difficult to find a solution to this “festering situation” and efforts to introduce a system had “drawn a blank”.
25 years ago - The Times
Saturday, January 15, 1994
30-year dispute over Bailey solved
A solution has been found to a 30-year dispute involving Maltese and UK governments and a British company over the liquidation of Bailey (Malta) Limited, one-time administrating company of Malta Drydocks, the Department of Information said yesterday.
Two agreements were signed last October between Malta and the UK and between Malta and the British company C. H. Bailey Plc.
The signing effectively brings to a close a dispute which began in 1963 when the Maltese Parliament set up a council to take over the administration of Bailey (Malta) Limited.
Man appeals for less severe sentence
A main jailed for a month for not paying maintenance to his estranged wife and son is appealing for a less severe sentence.
Raymond Farrugia, 36 of Birżebbuġa said the sentence was too harsh. He had been given the maximum sentence when there were mitigating circumstances.
Farrugia had been found guilty by the Magistrates’ Court of not paying his wife the maintenance allowance ordered by the Civil Court between September and December 1992.
Half a century ago - Times of Malta
Wednesday, January 15, 1969
European naval force for Med. proposed
Mr Eldon Griffiths, Conservative MP for Bury St Edmunds, in a working paper he presented to parliamentarians of the Western European Union in London proposed a European naval force operating in the Mediterranean separately from the American Sixth Fleet.
The Daily Telegraph yesterday said Mr Griffiths asserted that such a force could operate in the Adriatic in the event of Russian threats to Yugoslavia. This would prevent the presence of an American force which might turn an incident into a world crisis.
Malta seeks closer ties with Nato
Malta is reappraising its relationships with Nato in view of the Soviet naval presence in the Mediterranean, Prime Minister Dr George Borg Olivier said.
But the Maltese leader, talking to reporters, made it clear that Malta had no intention of reviving its reputation as a fortress island. Contacts with North Atlantic Treaty Organisation headquarters in Brussels were continuing he said, but no firm proposals had been made. He had no plans to visit Brussels.