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Most Doctors should welcome the idea of medical audit- as this will show that health services in Malta are efficient and in the vast majority of cases honest and credible.
A few bad apples in the medical profession – a number probably countable on the fingers of one hand--will naturally not welcome any kind audit.
An individual doctor who charges professional fees to patients for treatment given in the Renal Unit at the NHS Hospital – treatment which the doctor is duty bound to provide under the terms of his employment as a Consultant in the NHS, is unlikely to welcome any type of audit on his activities as an NHS Consultant.
An individual doctor who practices his private practice through a “medical centre” which is neither licenced as a clinic, nor registered as a company and whose accounts are not required to be audited, is unlikely to welcome any type of audit on his activities as private Consultant working in an unlicenced “medical centre”.
No one should be surprised then to learn that these activities produced an income of some Lm 2000,000 without much risk of alerting either the TCU – or the bank where the “medical centre” has an account.
Surely the a bank branch in a relatively small village should have been alerted on the vast amounts of money being deposited in such an account - on the principle of “know your customer”.
Ofcourse since this particular individual happens to be an ex labour parliamentary secretary for health complicates the issue further.
One or two bad apples is all that it takes to mar the reputation of the medical profession. Self regulation is a good thing provided that we do not allow a few rotten apples to rot the rest
Dr Frank Portelli MD FRCS (Ed)
St Pauls Bay
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