Hospital scam: Patients ‘will be protected’

The Health Ministry has given reassurance that it is taking all the measures to protect patients after a scam was uncovered at Mater Dei Hospital.

Disciplinary action will be taken according to the public service regulations, a ministry spokesman said when asked if the nurse allegedly involved in the racket would be suspended while police investigations were ongoing.

“Currently, an inquiry is under way and the ministry has asked the police to investigate further on the basis of the preliminary report. It would hinder the course of justice to comment further,” the spokesman said.

The Sunday Times revealed how police were investigating a scam in which a nurse and a salesman are alleged to have swindled vulnerable patients, mostly amputees, out of hundreds of euro by offering wound therapy not provided by the state and leading them to believe it was free.

The internal inquiry report describes this behaviour as “completely unacceptable” and recommended that severe disciplinary action be taken. The nurse in question holds a managerial position at Mater Dei and chairs a committee of the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses.

The ministry ordered an internal investigation after a patient turned up last April with an invoice expecting to be reimbursed for the therapy, known as VAC, which he received at Mater Dei.