News • 22 September 2002

Medical Council ignores overcharging complaints

Exclusive: MaltaToday reveals that Medical Council was officially made aware of complaints on three occasions but did absolutely nothing about them

While the Medical Council denies that it has received any complaints from foreign insurance agencies on claims of overcharging by Maltese doctors, MaltaToday can reveal that the issue was officially brought to the Council’s attention on at least three occasions during the summer months.

The complaints focus amongst others on Labour MP Louis Buhagiar.

The chairman of the British Medical Emergency Service Forum, Jon Phillips confirmed with this newspaper that he had written to the Director of Institutional Health, John Cachia, outlining the British insurance industry’s main concerns.

BMESF is an association that represents the interests of British medical emergency insurance companies and agencies.

Mr Phillips said he also forwarded copies of correspondence that BMESF had with Professor Louis Buhagiar, Dr Adrian Vella, St Philip's and Capua Hospitals. Although BMESF did not furnish Dr Cachia with details of particular cases, Mr Phillips told this newspaper that he is aware of at least one insurance agency, which of its own accord, passed details of individual cases to the health authorities in Malta, which were subsequently passed on to the Medical Council.

Mr Phillips said: "I received a response from Dr Cachia in July advising that he had passed the correspondence on to the Malta Medical Council and that we would hear from them - to date no response has been received."

The Medical Council regulates the medical profession and is responsible for dealing with complaints against doctors.

Meanwhile, the Director General at the Health Department, Dr Ray Busuttil confirmed with MaltaToday that he forwarded complaints received by his office from foreign medical insurance companies to the Medical Council for their consideration. Dr Busuttil informed this newspaper that he did so on three occasions.

The Medical Council is presided by former Justice Victor Caruana Colombo.

Answering questions put to it by this newspaper, the Medical Council in two separate letters dated 8 August and 11 September reiterated that it had received no complaint on the issue.

With reference to a precise question whether the Medical Council ‘ever received any complaints from foreign insurance companies or tourists about medical fees charged in Malta’ the Council’s letter dated 8 August states: "...the Medical Council has not to date received any such complaints."

In the same letter the Council informed MaltaToday that it was not "empowered by law to investigate any complaint which has not been made in accordance with Legal Notice 92 of 1959."

The legal notice states that the Council can investigate cases of misconduct by medical practitioners if a complaint is received "in writing" or if a "person acting in a public capacity" forwards to the Medical Council "information in writing as to the conduct of a practitioner."

In a purely legalistic interpretation of the law the Medical Council seems to have sidelined the information and correspondence passed on to it by the health authorities in Malta.

On 11 September, with absolutely no reference to the information it had received from the health authorities, the Medical Council once again informed MaltaToday that it had "not received any complaint" from overseas insurance agencies.

Apart from Dr Cachia’s acknowledgement, to date the BMESF has received no feedback from either the Medical Council or the health authorities in Malta. The Medical Council announced that it will be holding a press conference tomorrow.