Parliamentary Secretary Franco Mercieca has said he stopped seeing patients privately but continued to perform operations in State hospitals. He insisted he was not still breaching the ministerial code of ethics.

The code prohibits Cabinet members from seeing any patients, whether in private or State-run clinics.

“I have been given permission to do this and have no qualms in stating this publicly,” he said, referring to a contentious waiver granted to him by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat earlier this year.

Dr Mercieca still sees patients at Gozo General Hospital and at Mater Dei Hospital free of charge every Sunday morning.

Dr Mercieca, a leading ophthalmologist, had been conducting routine surgery and cataract procedures charging a surgeon’s fee of €400.

I have been given permission to do this

This had been revealed by The Sunday Times of Malta and the situation contrasted sharply with comments made by Dr Muscat a few days earlier when he had insisted that the waiver applied only to Dr Mercieca’s specialisations.

The waiver had come under heavy criticism from Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil who insisted that exceptions could not be made for ethical codes.

“The code of ethics is being blatantly breached. This is not a trivial matter,” he had said.

Subsequently, Dr Muscat said he would be ordering a review of the ministerial codeof ethics.

A government spokesman said that preliminary discussions on the review had already been held and that the revisions would be announced in the coming weeks

“We recently discussed this at Cabinet level and will be announcing the proposed amendments soon,” he said.