It's Official! Mother of God it's Finally Ready!

The first week of holidays has been quite a busy one with many things being "made official". First and foremost, it is now official that I work at McDonald's Baystreet. I worked my first shift last Friday. The 29th of June i.e. that same Friday, also saw the official release of Shrek 3.

Now, since McDonald's is in some sort of partnership agreement with Eden cinemas, the latter's business becomes our business. Not that it could possibly interest the readers targeted for this post, but McDonald's is getting into the spirit of this Shrek movie: decorating the restaurant appropriately (ah! Felt just like Christmas), ordering the staff, from manager to crew, to stay wearing little green Shrek ears while "on duty" (yes, I'm a medic even in summer), selling Shrek baseball caps for Lm2.50 and organising a host of Shrek parties which (I can safely assume) are especially organised for the little ones. Point to note: there is no such party at Baystreet...

Thirdly, the hospital Mater Dei (or should I say Mater Dejn?) has also been officially inaugurated in the above stipulated date. Of course, two "open days" followed that to celebrate the government's pompous accomplishment with the rest of the nation - Mother of God It's finally ready! Many stands were put up on site so as to make the hospital a bit more attractive than the beach or the cinema (Mater Dei vs. Shrek. What's it going to be?) Not that it was all that necessary, honestly. The fact that the public was left on tenterhooks for almost a decade and a half, as everyone was kept informed regarding the fate of this white elephant, was enough to send 80,000 flocking to this new hospital. I must admit, I was part of the 80,000 but I really didn't bother taking a tour round. At this point, one could wonder how much more ungrateful can today's young students be. As a future doctor, I should at least be proud of having a government that "invested" so much in the health sector. After all, we're talking about one of the most state-of-the-art hospitals in all Europe (I think). Well, these two open days don't signify the celebrations of a hospital that is up and running in full swing motion, explaining my lack of enthusiasm towards this project. A good hospital isn't just about the building; the system running Mater Dei is equally, if not even more, important that the fancy and colourful surroundings (with compliments to MCAST students...good job guys).

A very flashy Mater Dei magazine came to my hands lately. I actually took a good look at it - I guess a significant percentage of me is still interested in the happenings of this new hospital. And for good reason - I got my first two exam results (out of four) and (drum roll please) I passed in both. Now that my 3rd year is more and more on the horizon, I naturally find myself wondering where and how are my last three clinical years going to take place. As students, we are still left in the dark as to what's going to happen to us and our education facilities. Interestingly, however, the migration process described in the magazine "Sptar Mater Dei L-aħjar għal saħħtek" has been comprehensively divided into 4 phases, specifically as follows:

Fażi A: Migrazzjoni ta’ żoni pubbliċi u l-amministrazzjoni
Fażi B: Migrazzjoni tad-Dipartimenti ta’ l-Outpatients u servizzi anċillari
Fażi Ċ: Migrazzjoni tas-servizzi Inpatient
Fażi D: Faċilitajiet edukattivi u dipartimenti oħra

The Prime Minister (PM) promised that the hospital will be fully functional at the end of this year. All I know is that similar promises have been made before and the government has failed to keep his word, creating great inconvenience to the public. We can take current events as examples - the St. Paul's Bay Bypass. Quick words with the Medical School librarian back when I was still stduying suggested that Phase D might be complete in 2010 - the year in which I'm expected to graduate. Some nationalist leaning relatives of mine told me not to bother with such information. It got brushed off, saying that the source of information is pretty unreliable...it's coming from a librarian after all (if you get the hint).

Still, I had nothing better to do last Sunday than joining the Mater Dei crowd after Alive on Sunday mass at University chapel (min imaqdar irid jixtri). I thought it was a good way to simply to meet a few friends of mine and do something useful with my time. MMSA (Malta Medical Student Association) had its own stand opposite Outpatients, where my colleagues were happily playing doctor and taking blood pressure with their newly acquired stethoscopes. Ah! The bliss and enthusiasm of making it to the clinical years... Well, I'm a bit more of a St. Thomas - I'd like to receive all my results before actually thinking about what steth to buy for myself. In the meantime, I'll just keep helping people who are in greater need of my assistance at the moment. Joelle is taking part in this year's Lifecycle Challenge and I decided to help her out by selling "a few" lottery tickets.

Some good has come out of those two open days...people were with that "good feel" feeling now that they were given access to this glorious hospital and the altruism towards renal patients (exhibited by the ticket and bracelet buying) seemed to have complimented very well with the occasion. Honestly, I dare not complain. The Lifecycle challenge is one of the few things I actually believe in since it was in its infancy back in 1999. I was barely 12 years old, but the compassion I have towards the sick has been ingrained, most probably, way before my very first birthday. Both friends and family know me for this zeal to give everything that I've got to such people. Other friends of mine say that it's quite a disgrace that we actually need to stay fundraising to help cover the horrendous expenses at the Renal Unit, especially when the government was ready to set up this huge hospital considered as the biggest project ever undertaken in this country. Yet again, problems open doors for opportunities: sport lovers can channel their talents, dedication and energies into something very positive. And also, it gives Eileen Montesin some kind of story to keep the nation hooked to the stupidest TV series ever aired on national television: Dejjem Tiegħek Becky!