Updated | Prime Minister mulled over Franco Mercieca’s waiver
Parliamentary secretary ceases private practice after apparent breach of waiver.
Adds comment by PN
Parliamentary secretary Franco Mercieca will no longer be carrying private operations and has cancelled all operations.
Mercieca has come under severe pressure after it was revealed he was carrying out private practice during the week. But while in the past days he said he was in the stage of phasing out his private practice to stop it totally by the beginning of September, it appears that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has had a change of heart.
According to The Times, the Prime Minister on Tuesday met the junior minister at his office at Castille during which Mercieca agreed to stop the private operations immediately.
He will continue to offer his services free of charge at Mater Dei Hospital on Sundays and at the Gozo General Hospital on another day.
Despite the decision being taken on Tuesday, the Prime Minister refused to give any details in parliament in the evening. Opposition leader Simon Busuttil and whip David Agius had asked Muscat whether he had anything to add to reports of the junior minister out his private practice during the week, ostensibly in clear breach of a limited waiver - in written form and does not delve into specifics - by the Prime Minister to have Mercieca carry out his ophthalmological practice on Sundays.
But Muscat kept on insisting he would not be making a statement and walked out of the Chamber.
In an undercover video filmed by the Sunday Times at the St James Hospital, it was revealed that Mercieca on Wednesday carried our three cataract operations and six cosmetic laser eye-correction operations between 7am and 1pm, for a total of €3,600 for his half day's work.
Mercieca had previously claimed was only following up patients he operated upon before becoming parliamentary secretary and who needed further medical assistance, such as further cataract interventions. "If I operate on a Sunday instead of visiting a band club to see my constituents, I am (still) a full-time parliamentary secretary," he had said.
The Prime Minister himself had denied that Mercieca was carrying out cataract operations when asked during a press conference at the Palace. Muscat had then insisted that Mercieca was carrying out specialised surgeries.
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