Need to hammer the message home

I recently took a young foreigner, who was in pain, to the Emergency Department of Mater Dei Hospital. This person is working, together with other young foreigners, on an EU project.

We entered Emergency at 4 p.m. There were few people waiting there. At 7.30 p.m. we were called to one of the areas. The doctor, only one in the whole area, called the young person at 7.50 p.m. After a careful examination he said he would continue his examination with a tendon hammer. He did not have one. So he called somebody to get one. There seemed to be only one in the whole Emergency Department. After 10 minutes the doctor called again. The hammer was still being used. The same happened after 20 minutes. Outside, among the patients, there were two children crying in pain. The doctor showed me his contract which said that the hospital would provide all the medical instruments. The stethoscope he was using was his, though.

I asked him how he could work in such conditions. He, a GP who was working there part-time, humbly said he was forced to, inasmuch as, due to the economic crisis, he had lost a number of patients who instead of going to his pharmacy preferred to go to a polyclinic or to Mater Dei Hospital. He explained that he himself was having difficulty making ends meet and that he was thinking of going to work abroad. After 30 minutes waiting I said I would write to the papers. So the doctor called again saying that somebody was going to write to the papers. The tendon hammer arrived within five minutes!

When we left hospital the young person called her friends telling them what had happened. I heard them laughing. This person then told me she would buy a tendon hammer and send it to Mater Dei.