A man who complained of a severe chest pain ended up losing his life after the ambulance took some 40 minutes to arrive, allegedly delayed by the ongoing migration process at Mater Dei.
The incident took place last week at the Bank of Valletta’s head office St Venera, where Ray Debattista, a messenger, was taken ill suffering from a sharp pain in the chest. Immediately his colleagues called St Luke’s hospital to dispatch an ambulance to the scene.
As time wore on and the ambulance still had not reached the offices, someone even called the Mosta Health Centre to ask for help, but to no avail, people close to Bank of Valletta employees told MaltaToday.
At one point the messenger’s colleagues were allegedly informed that all ambulances were busily involved in the Mater Dei migration process, and that was the main reason why the ambulance took so long to reach destination.
Sources close to the bank confirmed that the ambulance reached Bank Of Valletta Head Office 40 minutes after the first phone call.
The same sources confirmed that the man died shortly after. It is still unclear whether the patient died in transit, or at the hospital.
Contacted by MaltaToday Midweek, Health Minister Dr Louis Deguara claimed that he would not usually be informed of such incidents.
“This is news to me. I’m getting to know the details through this newspaper,” answered Dr Deguara.
Asked specifically whether there were any other deaths related directly to the Mater Dei migration process, Dr Louis Deguara claimed that “he was only informed about one particular case wherein a lady previously recovering in St Luke’s hospital died shortly after she was transferred to Mater Dei.”
“From what I’ve been informed, the patient died of a cardiac arrest,” stated the Minister. Dr Deguara was however unable to confirm whether any internal investigations were launched to further delve into these two stories.
Deguara referred MaltaToday Midweek to Dr Frank Bartolo, Mater Dei’s administrator. The latter stated that he was not informed about any internal inquiries about the Bank Of Valletta incident.
“I’m not the man responsible for ambulances,” Dr Bartolo said, referring this newspaper to Dr John Cachia, director of Institutional Healthcare, as the best man to talk about such cases.
However, just like Dr Ray Busuttil, director of General Health, Marion Rizzo, CEO of Mater Dei, and Mater Dei’s PRO Chris Scicluna, Dr Cachia was unavailable for comment at the time of going to print.

jfarrugia@mediatoday.com.mt