The Minister of Health and the Nationalist Party this evening criticised a Labour MP who in a parliamentary question asked for the cataract operation of an elderly person to be moved forward.

The minister, Joseph Cassar, said that the order of cataract operations was set on the basis of the patients' medical conditions.

Should a patient feel that his condition had worsened, his doctor should contact the consultant ophthalmologist so that he could decide on the urgency of the case.

Dr Cassar said that Mr Parnis's request for his application to be moved forward gave one to understand that the Opposition did not want the medical consultants to have discretion in such matters and wanted this to be in th hands of politicians. It also meant that Mr Parnis wanted other patients to be passed over.

The Nationalist Party in a statement said that for Joseph Muscat and the Labour Party, the adivce of the consultants was irrelevant and they wanted to decide between patients. When Labour governments of the past discriminated, the consequences for the country were very negative, it said. This, the PN said, was a policy which looked at faces.

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