The Minister of Health intervened for a foreigner to be operated on at Mater Dei Hospital 'on humanitarian grounds' after the hospital authorities refused to act because a previous bill was not settled.

The Commissioner for Health reported today in Case Notes 2013 that an elderly foreign woman who lives at St Vincent de Paul Residence had needed to undergo surgery but the authorities at Mater Dei Hospital refused to give the go-ahead because she owed money to the hospital from a previous hospitalisation.

The complainant explained that due to financial problems, she could not pay the outstanding bill.

The medical condition of the complainant was such that even sitting down and walking was becoming difficult. 

An investigation by the Commissioner showed that the patient had come to Malta with her son from a non-EU country.

After some time in Malta, the complainant had to be hospitalised and the hospital authorities rightly billed her. The bill amounted to thousands of euro. Subsequently her son died in Malta, and she was left alone and destitute.

The Commissioner for Health was informed that since the patient had outstanding bills with MDH, only ‘life or death operations/procedures could be performed’ and the medical intervention she needed was not considered as such.

The patient asked the authorities for the bills to be waived on humanitarian grounds as there was no way she could pay.

An appointment at the Outpatients Department was scheduled but when the  complainant went there, she was not seen by the consultant because the approval to waive the outstanding bills was not yet forthcoming.

The Commissioner for Health told the CMO that the patient should be operated on, and her bills should be waived, for humanitarian reasons.

Eventually the CMO confirmed that the Health Minister had authorised the waiver of the outstanding balance. The patient was given an appointment for the same day and operated without any further delay. She was then sent back to  St Vincent de Paul Residence.