Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/340052
News maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 2 JULY 2014 THE majority of Maltese households reported receiving and sending the same volumes of posted letters de- spite a significant number declaring they sent fewer letters. Households have now switched to electronic mail and eCommerce. 38% of these households said they would switch to non-postal alternatives should the price of addressed letters be increased by 5% to 10%. The findings were made in a survey by the Malta Communications Au- thority (MCA), carried out between March and April this year, in order to evaluate household perceptions and satisfaction levels regarding postal services in Malta. The household survey was carried out via telephone interviews to ran- domly chosen respondents within a representative sample. A total of 500 households participated. The results show that demand for parcel post services has grown. In contrast to 47% in 2011, more than half of the interviewed households confirmed they had received a parcel during the last 12 months. Interestingly, 20% of the households revealed that their parcel was deliv- ered by an operator other than Malta- Post, with 41% of these identifying DHL as the delivering operator. In terms of expenditure patterns, 51% of households perceived that they spent less than €20 a year on postal services. Nonetheless, 34% did not know how much they spent, presum- ably due to the minimal use of postal services. Only 37% of households claimed to be satisfied with the general price lev- els of MaltaPost. This contrasts with 66% registered in the 2011 survey. 70% of households claimed to have been to the post office during the last 12 months, mainly to make use of other services available at the postal outlets. 50% of households responded to have made use of the post office network for the payment of bills. Satisfaction levels with the waiting time at the post office decreased from 70% in 2011 to 57% in 2014. 64% of households said they expect- ed postal articles to be delivered on a next day basis. To this effect, 45% of households said they would not opt for a cheaper service in exchange for delayed delivery. 28% of households would consider choosing such a serv- ice, while 4% responded that they would accept this deferred service if the postal article being sent is not urgent. The survey also revealed low us- age of MaltaPost's website, with only 20% of households claiming to have accessed it. Households have in gen- eral used MaltaPost's website to track parcels, to search for prices of postal services and other related informa- tion, and to search for post-codes. 71% of households write the post-code when sending a postal article. While 89% of household respond- ents expressed satisfaction with the overall quality of postal services pro- vided by MaltaPost, the number of formal complaints with MaltaPost has risen from 7% to 11%. Only 28% of those who complained were satisfied with the way their case was handled. 148 persons admitted to hospital for overdose in five months MIRIAM DALLI A total of 148 persons were admitted to Mater Dei Hospital suffering from overdose during 2014 although none of the admissions were fatal. In reply to a parliamentary question raised by MP Claudio Grech, Health Minister Konrad Mizzi said the high- est rate of admission this year was registered in 2014, with 39 cases. In January there were 24 cases, fol- lowed by 21 cases in February, 35 in March and 29 in May. "There were no deaths caused by overdose this year according to the national mortality registry," Mizzi said. Majority of customers use post offices to pay bills