Maltese Medicine.

On Sunday I had some first hand experience of the medical system here in Malta. After feeling a little ill all day one of my friends became fevery and delirious. After listening to her talking nonsense for a while, we decided that we should probably get her to hospital. We decided not to call EC Malta at that point, as we weren’t sure how long we would be in hospital for and if it was necessary to involve them. We arrived in a taxi at the A+E department at Mater Dei Hospital. After a short wait my friend was showed into the triage where she could see a doctor. We waited again, but the doctor soon came, after asking some questions, they took a blood sample, and made my friend as comfortable as possible in a private cubicle. A few hours and a few doctors later, they still weren’t entirely sure what the problem was, so decided to keep her in overnight. At that point we had to leave, as friends aren’t allowed to stay overnight. We realized that it was important to speak to EC at this point, so rang the emergency number that they had provided. Soon we were speaking to Nat (even though it was about one in the morning). And she agreed that we should go home and that I could have a day off the following day so that I could go and visit my friend to see how she was doing.
After a stressed night’s sleep, I woke in the morning to ring the hospital and find out visiting times. I also rang EC who had already spoken to my friend and discovered that she was feeling much better. I took the bus to the hospital and spent a couple of hours there, where everything was going much better. The staff had taken great care of my friend, and had carried out a shockingly thorough set of tests, including a CT scan and a Lumbar Injection!
The room was comfortable and the food much better than what we were cooking for ourselves at the Carlton! My friend is now out of hospital and feeling fine. I was shocked and pleased with the quality of medical care given here in Malta and the support we received from the EC staff.