A medical consultant was not allowed to treat a foreign national at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre because the patient could not pay thousands in hospital fees.

According to the Ombudsman’s Case Notes 2017, the patient, whose application for refugee status had been refused, was admitted to Mater Dei Hospital where he was diagnosed with a condition that needed surgery.

He was operated upon and then referred to Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre as he required chemotherapy.

However, hospital management forbade the consultant from seeing the patient until he paid for the treatment - something he could ill-afford to do. 

The consultant wrote to the Commissioner for Health explaining the case and asking for help.

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Noting that the patient was not in a position to pay as he was “practically penniless,” the commissioner in turn wrote to the Health Ministry, asking it to treat the case as an exceptional one and to waive the fees.

The Health Ministry can waive any uninsured person's medical fees, in part or in full, in exceptional circumstances or on humanitarian grounds.

The commissioner also referred to the “fundamental rights every individual is granted by the Constitution of Malta, the European Convention of Human Rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union”.

He recommended that the ministry ought to be informed of cases where hospital authorities withheld treatment.

“This would avoid any delay in treatment, which, in certain circumstances, is crucial,” the commissioner said.

The ministry agreed to waive the patient's fees, saying it would be making use of funds from the European Union directed to member states that are “most exposed to the immigration phenomenon”.