The list of health care services offered by the government was posted online in October 2010 and is updated regularly to inform the public about the latest services, according to the Health Ministry.

The ministry said it had already implemented a provision made in a recent appeals court judgment, which said the government had the duty to provide information about its public-funded health care package. However, it insisted, the package had been on the ministry’s website since October 2010.

The appeals court recently confirmed a judgment handed down in November 2008 which ruled that the authorities’ refusal to cover a diabetic patient’s treatment abroad was in violation of EU law. The case was instituted in 2004 by Daniel James Cassar against the Chief Government Medical Officer and the Director of Social Services.

Mr Cassar had required surgery but the government refused his request for this to be done overseas on grounds that the procedure did not form part of the publicly-funded health care services package. In the circumstances, he had to undergo a kidney transplant in Pisa at his own expense, spending over €74,000 on the operation. His mother was the kidney donor.

The court found that had such surgery been possible in Malta, he would have had the same operation performed for free. So, being a person entitled to free medical treatment in Malta, Mr Cassar was entitled to the treatment he sought.

The court ruled the same applied if “the waiting time imposed on the person concerned exceeds the medically acceptable period in the particular case”.

The ministry was working on the transposition of a new directive on cross border health care that would come into force by October 2013. Until the directive was transposed into Maltese law, the health authorities would continue to process requests for treatment abroad “in line with current EU regulations and local administrative procedures through the EU Health Care Entitlement Unit and the National Programme for Highly Specialised Overseas Referrals”, the ministry said.

The court judgment was not directly linked to the issue of waiting lists. “However, the government is determined to continue tackling waiting times across the full spectrum of services it offers. So far, operational activity at Mater Dei Hospital has increased significantly,” it said.

In 2010, more than 41,790 operations were conducted at Mater Dei, an increase of 28 per cent or more than 9,000 operations, over the final year of St Luke’s Hospital.

Also, government policy was directed towards treating Maltese patients in Malta and was based on the experience gained through the National Highly-Specialised Referrals Programme, which sends patients requiring specialised treatment unavailable in Malta but covered by the publicly funded health care package to the UK.

“The patients who have undertaken this treatment have expressed their preference to being granted their treatment locally as far as possible,” the ministry said.