The prime minister has defended Foreign Minister George Vella after reports that he is violating the ministerial code of ethics by seeing patients.

Speaking in reply to a parliamentary question by Nationalist MP George Pullicino. Dr Muscat said he had noted the reports in the media.

He said that Dr Vella was seeing 'constituents' on Saturday morning in his office, a place which also served as his clinic in his 48 years as a doctor.

The minister had a duty to keep regular contact with his constituents. Among his constituents there were some who sought medical advice, and he had a duty to give such advice according to his professional oath, Dr Muscat said. However whenever this happened, Dr Vella was telling the individuals concerned that he was not practising as a doctor and they should seek another doctor

Dr Vella was not requesting payment for his service.

Dr Muscat said Dr Vella was not making house visits and he was not accepting new patients.

He had informed the Zejtun Home for the Elderly, where he had served patients for many years, that he could not continue to give his service there. He had also renounced his licence as an authorised aviation medical examiner.

Dr Muscat said Dr Vella was observing the code of political ethics while also observing the medical code, which one could not withdraw from overnight.