Parliamentary secretary says ‘limited waiver’ is transitional

Parliamentary secretary Franco Mercieca has said a limited waiver from the Prime Minister for him to perform private operations in his specialised field of corneal surgery, will only be transitional and not long-term.

"With time, new specialists will graduate and migrate here with practice in corneal surgery, and I will be able to pass on my experience to them," the junior minister for the rights of the disabled and elderly care, said. "To me the most important thing is for patients to have the best care," Mercieca said on breakfast show TVAM.

"I won't take on new cases, unless they are within my limited expertise. I won't take patients who can be tended to by other specialists. But I do have a duty towards patients - I am a doctor first and foremost."

The limited waiver Joseph Muscat gave Mercieca was dubbed as 'scandalous' by Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi, also present on TVAM. "Muscat had no power, no authority to give such a waiver. The Code of Ethics does not permit any waiver. This betrays Muscat's own criticism of the salary increase for ministers which was guised as some form of pretence of good governance," Azzopardi said.

Lawrence Gonzi and his Cabinet increased ministerial salaries by €500 a week in May 2008 in a decision that went unpublicised. The public outrage led to ministers refunding €17,000 of their accumulated salaries in 2011, before the increase was officially retracted in January 2012 the day Gonzi announced a cabinet reshuffle.

The code of ethics for ministers prohibits them from taking on private work and they must take steps to divest themselves from their commercial interests.

The Nationalist MP said that former health minister Joe Cassar was denied permission by Lawrence Gonzi to perform his medical work at Mater Dei Hospital, and that way back in 1966, eye surgeon Censu Tabone (later President) was denied the same permit by George Borg Olivier.

Mercieca is allowed to carry out surgery at Mater Dei Hospital on Sundays, and perform limited surgeries related to his specialisation of corneal surgery within the private sector.

Mercieca claimed he was unable to "just switch off" from his private practice, and that he has been reducing his medical workload ever since he took the decision to run for Parliament two years ago.

While Mercieca claims his ophthalmological skills are in short supply, head of department Thomas Fenech has played down this claim: both men have previously been at loggerheads over a botched selection exercise for new surgeons at Mater Dei, which later was elevated into a short-lived tiff between the PN and the PL.

In the meantime, Mercieca has taken to task the previous government for ignoring his calls for an eye bank at Mater Dei. "The Lions' Club had to set us up with all the capital expenditure required for the eye bank and to train someone on eye retrieval and transfer," Mercieca said.