[attach id=259142 size="medium"]Parliamentary Secretary Franco Mercieca. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi[/attach]
Parliamentary secretary Franco Mercieca yesterday promised to stop conducting private eye operations by the beginning of September, following an investigative report by The Sunday Times of Malta.
The newspaper revealed he is not restricting his private practice to specialised operations, as allowed by the limited waiver from the ministerial code of ethics that he was granted by the Prime Minister.
On the contrary, he is also conducting lucrative routine surgery at a surgeon’s fee of €400 per procedure, including cosmetic laser surgery and standard cataract operations.
Only last month, when asked whether the limited waiver permitted Mr Mercieca to conduct cataract operations, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had said: “No, I’m talking about his specialisations.”
The story provoked public indignation as well as criticism from Opposition leader Simon Busuttil, prompting the Government to issue a statement in Mr Mercieca’s name late afternoon to say he would phase out his practice.
“Mr Mercieca declares he is keeping with the waiver granted to him and is in the stage of phasing out his private practice and will be stopping it totally by the beginning of September,” the statement read.
“The work he is currently carrying out includes phakic implants and cornea cross linking operations, which can be done only by Mr Mercieca, locally,” it added.
Regarding cataract operations, the Government said Mr Mercieca was only operating previously seen patients.
Regarding laser surgery, Mr Mercieca is one of only two local specialists and was currently training another person to carry them out, the Government added – even though his aide at the private hospital said in the newspaper’s video evidence that two other doctors carried out such procedures.
“It is Mr Mercieca’s responsibility to make sure that this training is done without haste and in the most efficient of manners.”
The statement also pointed out that Mr Mercieca reserved the right to pursue legal action against The Sunday Times of Malta for libel in view of “false information and inaccuracies” in its story.
“The journalist who penned this article got even the most basic facts wrong, let alone the more elaborate issues.
“This comes as no surprise and follows a sustained pattern of attacks, which are only meant to tarnish Mr Mercieca’s reputation,” the statement said, pointing out that, contrary to what was published, Mr Mercieca did not use his official car when travelling for his private practice.
“A picture of this car dominates the paper’s front page. This is an outright lie. The car is a private one, and the paper can check this by referring to the car’s registration number, which has been blurred in the published picture.
“The lack of investigation on such a basic fact undermines the author’s credibility and the other claims he makes.”
The newspaper accepts that it erred in describing the vehicle in question – Mr Mercieca was seen being driven into the hospital car park last Wednesday at 7am – but the statement failed to address the central allegation in the story that he was there to perform routine operations against payment.
The Government also denied Mr Mercieca delivered regular lectures about laser operations.
It added that so far at least one patient had to be sent abroad for surgery since he was not referred to Mr Mercieca, resulting in extra expense to the Maltese taxpayer.
“This leaves only the patients in question short-changed.
“Mr Mercieca fully understands the responsibilities of his office but remains committed to be of service to his patients and will do his utmost to make sure that this transition is as smooth as possible for them.”
Mr Mercieca will continue to see patients at Mater Dei Hospital, including Sunday morning operations, without remuneration, the statement ended.
Meanwhile, Dr Busuttil yesterday accused the Labour Government of “hypocrisy” and said the public demanded an explanation from Dr Muscat about the newspaper’s revelations.
Speaking at the end of a PN general council, Dr Busuttil said this behaviour was hypocritical from a party that spent five years slamming the Government for giving its ministers a weekly increase of €500.
He pointed out that for conducting cosmetic surgery, Mr Mercieca earned €3,600 in a morning.
Dr Busuttil said Dr Muscat and Mr Mercieca “lied” to the public when they claimed this waiver was granted in the interests of patients and that he was only working on Sunday mornings.
“The code of ethics is being blatantly breached. This is not a trivial matter. No Prime Minister should give special permission to a minister to breach ethics.
“I hope the Prime Minister takes action on this,” he said.
Questions sent to Dr Muscat yesterday were unanswered except for this statement by the Office of the Prime Minister: “The Prime Minister is assured by Mr Mercieca that he is sticking to the waiver granted and that he will stop all private practice by the beginning of September.”
Clarification
The Sunday Times of Malta would like to clarify that the vehicle pictured on its front page yesterday was not the official car of parliamentary secretary Franco Mercieca.
The reference to Mr Mercieca’s “official car” in a sub-heading on the front page was a regrettable error made inadvertently during the newspaper’s design stage and should have referred to Mr Mercieca’s “driver” instead.
It should also be pointed out that the photo was not intended to claim that Mr Mercieca was using his official car but to show that he was entering the car park of a private hospital to conduct operations on a Wednesday.
The Sunday Times of Malta stands by the rest of its story (the video evidence on timesofmalta.com is incontrovertible) and is of the opinion that the Government is attempting to use this issue as a smokescreen to cover the central issue: which is whether the waiver granted to Mr Mercieca is being breached by him carrying out cosmetic eye surgery against payment.