During the last week of January, all of Malta heard that the electricity supply in Mater Dei Hospital had stopped for some time. All the papers and news services advised us that some equipment had also been damaged, but the authorities were quick to point out that the situation was back to normal in minutes and that no real long lasting damage was done either to people nor to equipment.
However, our hospital is a very delicate place, and some people resident in it at the time were in extremely delicate situations and they may have had special need of help and attention by persons working in the hospital who should “know better”.
One such person was my beloved brother, Victor, who had only a few more hours left in this life, yet he still fell victim to the gross negligence and unfeeling treatment meted out to him by Melita Cable and their rough staff on duty at the time.
My brother was aware of the very short time he still had with us, and during that time having a telephone connection was of the utmost importance both to him and to the large number of friends and family who were trying to phone him up to say their goodbyes.
Unfortunately, when the electricity supply went off and back on, the power supply of the Melita Cable system, leading only to his bed, ceased functioning. My brother was a very capable technician and he immediately realised what was wrong, while the efficient hospital nursing staff reported the fault to the Melita Cable desk, which is situated right at the entrance to the hospital.
I was also notified of the situation and contacted the Melita Cable staff persons on duty where I was simply told that the situation will be remedied one step at a time. I tried explaining our special situation to them, pleading with them not to leave my brother without his service during the last few hours of his life, but to no avail.
I tried contacting the Melita Cable offices outside the hospital but the bureaucratic red tape I encountered was unbelievable. I tried talking to somebody in authority but it proved to be impossible as the persons answering the phone simple would not connect me to anybody and just told me to talk to the hospital desk. By that time I was being spoken to very arrogantly and my calls were even being placed on hold and left or just cut off.
When, many hours later, a Melita Cable technician went to my brother’s bedside and pronounced that the power supply needs to be changed, he also said that they did not have one in stock, and that they needed to get it from their head office, which they would do the day after.
My poor brother asked him to take one from a bed which was not in use since it was only his that was not working. The technician said that it is against company policy to do this. He indicated that he was not interested in my brother’s special needs and left.
They left him without service for the rest of the day, the night, and all of the next morning. Finally, in the afternoon of the next day the technician returned and changed the power supply in a few seconds. By that time my brother could barely talk! The service, however, was still off as during the time that it was down they still deducted the time and money from the prepaid card my brother had and they simply told him that if he wants the service he must pay again. In view of the circumstances we paid again, and later on I went to the desk asking for a refund of the card that expired while the service was off.
Unbelievable, I was roughly told that no refund will be given, even though they were very much aware that my brother did not have the service during that time.
By that time it was also too late for my brother as he could not talk and was too weak to hold the phone. In fact, he passed away soon after.
I can honestly say that Melita Cable tried to take my brother’s dignity away, and in fact they also took advantage of him during the last few hours of his life. This is the result of the arrogance which is bred whenever a monopoly is created, as happened in our national hospital with Melita Cable. We have to beg and suffer arrogance because we can only get such service from them. Thank you Melita Cable for nothing.
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