Stephen Brincat, who headed the State hospital’s Oncology Department, knows of two cancer patients who died from chemotherapy toxicity more than 15 years ago, the Health and Gozo Ministries said in a joint statement.

Why didn’t he report the cases then and tackle the problem? Instead he stopped the service

“At the time there was no specialist register in place to stipulate the administration of chemotherapy. The introduction of specialist registers since EU accession provides for appropriate safeguards for patients in the overseeing of administration of chemotherapy,” they said in the statement issued following a meeting with Dr Brincat.

This put into context the claims made by Dr Brincat who resigned from his post as head of oncology last week claiming his advice was repeatedly ignored by the government.

In a letter to The Sunday Times Dr Brincat had said patients in Gozo died from chemotherapy toxicity (side effects of chemotherapy) because treatment was carried out without necessary expertise.

He said death by chemo toxicity was rare but did not specify the number of deaths in Gozo.

He used the incidents to support his stand against introducing chemotherapy at the Gozo hospital before there is the necessary expertise and resources, to avoid a repetition of the past.

Health Minister Joe Cassar and Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono yesterday said they had never heard these allegations before. On Sunday Dr Cassar said his ministry was investigating the matter.

Ms Debono stressed the importance of having chemotherapy in Gozo to alleviate the travelling burden for Gozitan cancer patients.

When contacted, Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses president Paul Pace accused Dr Brincat of “playing dirty” and alarming Gozitan cancer patients.

“Now we find out that he did not want to introduce chemotherapy in Gozo because two people died 15 years ago. Since then chemotherapy and technology changed. This is shameful,” Mr Pace said. He questioned why Dr Brincat had only spoken up now.

“Why didn’t he report the cases then and tackle the problem.

“Instead he stopped the service and did not organise training for doctors or nurses,” Mr Pace said.

On Sunday Dr Cassar had called on Dr Brincat to state whether he had asked the Health Department to investigate this negligence when it occurred.

Dr Brincat, in a statement sent to The Times yesterday morning, before the joint ministry statement was issued, said: “A civil servant gives his advice in confidence unless he resigns on a point of public policy after which he is duty bound to do what is in the public interest.”

Asked specifically why he did not raise the matter with the authorities before now, Dr Brincat would not elaborate.

He confirmed the deaths happened “over 15 years ago” but did not state how many people died.

When pressed again over the phone, he said it was “very, very few… but even one is enough to have changed my policy”.

He said the deaths were “never an issue of negligence but one of lack of experience” and reiterated that he had given the government a plan for the safe introduction of chemotherapy in Gozo that needed about six months to be implemented.

However, the government wanted to rush things and he disagreed.

Mr Pace yesterday insisted that chemotherapy was administered by nurses under the supervision of a junior doctor. Consultants ordered it but were not present during administration.

This meant that introducing chemotherapy in Gozo simply required getting two nurses from Sir Paul Boffa cancer hospital to travel to Gozo once a week. He knew of nurses willing to do it.

He said the Gozo Hospital was better equipped than Boffa since it had an intensive therapy unit.

“It is shameful that Dr Brincat is using his position to scaremonger… and for political reasons,” Mr Pace said, pointing out that Dr Brincat had a vested interest as he had a private practice.

Replying to this Dr Brincat said: “We are not telling patients to come privately but to go to Boffa Hospital because that’s safer for them.”