Police ‘investigating case’ flagged by John Dalli’s Mater Dei report

A case flagged by government consultant John Dalli in his management report on Mater Dei Hosptial has been passed on to the police for further investigation.

However, it is not clear which case the police are investigating.

In a parliamentary question tabled in December, then health minister Godfrey Farrugia had confirmed that boards of investigations had been set up to investigate the various cases of thefts that had been flagged by Dalli in his report.

In a follow up question that Grech tabled in February, he asked whether any cases had been referred to the Police and whether any officials or Mater Dei employees had been suspended.

In a written reply tabled by the new health minister Konrad Mizzi, it was confirmed that the case had been passed on to the police for further investigations.

Grech however told Social Solidarity Minister Michael Farrugia – replacing Mizzi who was indisposed – that the reply did not fully address his question and it was not clear what case the police were investigating.

During the same sitting, Grech also complained over another reply given by the health ministry arguing that he didn’t want a “political reply” but a technical one.

Grech asked the minister to table in parliament any copies of experts’ advice in favour of a split within the Cardiac Services Department.

But in a bleak reply, Grech was informed that the department had to be divided in two sections – a cardiology department to be headed by a cardiologist and a cardio-surgery department to be headed by a surgeon for administrative reasons.

Intervening, Nationalist MP and cardiologist Albert Fenech accused Farrugia of “not knowing” what he was talking about as the latter attempted to reply to the questions posed by the Opposition.

At one point, Farrugia said the government was doing all it could to address the issue of waiting lists and the opposition MPs should take a look at the lists to understand what he was talking about.

But according to Fenech, Farrugia “clearly did not know” what he was talking about as the waiting lists for cardiac surgeries had already decreased from two years to two months.