Joseph Azzopardi quite rightly writes (June 2) to lament the fact that, during the 50th anniversary dinner of the Medical Association of Malta in 2014, no mention was made of the various disputes doctors and the government had been involved in and, in particular, the 10-year saga endured during the ‘cultural revolution’ of the 1970s and 1980s.

I write to lament another omission by the association.

Hospital consultants, who have shared their working lives between the British and Maltese health services, discover at retiring age that Malta doesn’t pay them the social security pension due to them according to their respective Malta NI mandatory contributions taken off their salaries. Maltese legislation permits the Social Security Department to deduct most (if not practically all) their Maltese pension in lieu of their British NHS pension.

Malta, therefore, argues: “We’re deducting your pension because you’ve got one from the British NHS and we don’t believe you should have two pensions fortwo jobs.”

Curiously enough, the Maltese medical association has never contested this on behalf of its members. Perhaps it truly believes all doctors end up so stinking rich they don’t need the pension related to their professional services to the Maltese health service.