All three patients who had been given expired Tamiflu medication had subsequently been moved out of intensive care as their medical condition had improved, Mater Dei hospital's medical director said this evening.

Joseph Zarb Adami was reacting to statements made this morning by PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami, who used a speech to PN delegates to ask whether any patients had died after ingesting expired medication. 

Medics' decision to administer Tamiflu past its expiry date is currently the subject of a government investigation. 

In the statement issued this evening, Dr Zarb Adami said that the decision to administer expired medicine was a clinical one.  

He expressed dismay that a clinical decision had been turned into "a political football" and chided Dr Fenech Adami for having sparked "needless alarmism" and "raised doubts about medical decisions made by experts in the sector." 

"We look to our political class to wish us well in our work, not to attack us without justification," Dr Zarb Adami said. 

Beppe Fenech Adami asked this morning if any of the affected patients had subsequently passed away.