Healthcare workers ordered to double-check patient identity

Mhux hekk, ask the overworked nurses to sort out your own mess Identità. You know no shame. Why don’t you ask your ministers to send you all their persons of trust to do this dirty work? What a mess of a country! – Peter Mercieca

Truly unbelievable that healthcare workers and honest citizens are now punished for the crimes of our “elites”. – Matthias Wille

There is no need for a reception to be manned by nurses. This should be practice everywhere. Identity theft is not rare. – K. Zahra 

Identity theft may not be rare but it is exceptionally rare that the very national authority of a country that is set to safeguard the authenticity of identities is the one that issues false identities and partakes in wholesale identity theft. – Chris Sprucefield

Robert Abela denies it. Byron Camilleri denies it. Identità PR denies it. Yet, Mater Dei Hospital administration know full well that they cannot, just like foreign governments have decided, rely on the Malta ID cards. The police commissioner warns us about identity theft hacks on the internet but does nothing to catch the known criminals that flushed our IDs down the toilet to make their dirty millions. – P. Pullicino

In this disastrous situation, the urgent action which needs to be taken is that of Identità issuing new ID cards, with new photos, in different colour or style, after verifying each and every ID number and its details, and declaring all previous ID cards invalid. This might require all Maltese citizens to be called in to several offices around Malta and Gozo to have their photo taken and details verified. This would certainly cost a fortune but that’s the price to be paid to regenerate confidence in the system. – Joe Scicluna

Photo: Mark Zammit Cordina

It is the security staff’s job to verify the identity of patients, while they are being attended to. It is not the doctors’ or nurses’ or carers’ job. The medical staff should refuse to obey this order. Where are the unions to take the minister to court? – Carmel Ellul

More work and responsibility for health workers while the culprits at Identità enjoy the fruit of their crime. And those are apart from the Identità collaborators in the attempted fraud in the last elections. – Adrian Borg Cardona

Let us all light a candle in the dark, by providing another means of identification at the check-in desk: driving licence, Tallinja card, hospital/clinic appointment letter… or passport! – Lawrence Mifsud

This is another knee-jerk reaction and will certainly cause more stress on the healthcare workers and more waiting time. Healthcare workers are made to clean the mess created by Identità and all those involved in this huge racket. Yet, we have the PM defending the minister responsible, Byron Camilleri, instead of shouldering their responsibilities and resigning or, at least, making sure that the culprits are brought to justice. On the other hand, I forgot that we have an incompetent and absent police commissioner. Impunity and incompetence rule. Shame on them all who brought our beloved Malta to its knees. – Joe Spiteri

“Failure to follow these guidelines may result in disciplinary action.” Oh really? And how will that work out when those responsible for (and profiting from) the mess are strutting happily around without a care in the world? – R. E. Saliba