Labour MP Franco Mercieca this evening rejected claims by Nationalist MP Claudette Buttigieg that he had refused to work on Saturdays and public holidays while under the Nationalist government but, under the present government, he raised the number of eye operations, thus cutting down on the waiting list.

He demanded an apology from the Nationalist MP, saying she could easily consult theatre logs and ask her friends and his patients about how he had worked.

He said that when his friend Joe Cassar became Health Minister under the former government in 2010, he wrote to him, congratulating him and offering to help in reducing the waiting list, without further remuneration.

He had received no reply to his offer other than an acknowledgment.

Dr Mercieca said that after the change of government he made exactly the same proposal to current minister Konrad Mizzi who immediately made two theatres and surgical teams available. As a result on Saturdays he was able to perform 30 or more cataract operations, moving from one theatre to another. A theatre had since been set up in Gozo.

He regretted, Dr Mercieca said, that the former government had not taken up his suggestions to cut waiting time, and said the 'lies' made about him only served to dent the credibility of those who made them.