Health minister accuses PN MP of ‘misinterpreting hospital figures’

Health minister Chris Fearne accused Opposition MP Claudette Buttigieg of misinterpreting hospital figures.

In an opinion piece in the Malta Independent, Buttigieg claimed that the record 52,889 surgical operations that were performed at Mater Dei last year was inflated to include MRI interventions.

She noted that she had asked a parliamentary question to then health minister Konrad Mizzi to table the full report for surgical operations. Mizzi didn’t table the report but replied that a total of 52,889 “procedures” were performed at Mater Dei in 2015 – an increase of 16,914 interventions when the hospital opened to the public.

“The devil is truly in the detail, and the detail here is the use of the word ‘procedures’,” she wrote. “It looks like somebody thought it would be clever to inflate the numbers by adding interventions that were already taking place at Mater Dei but not previously included under the heading of surgical operations, like medical imaging interventions including MRIs.

“Konrad Mizzi thinks he can fool us on what is going on at Mater Dei like he tried to fool us on Panama. What’s worse is that Chris Fearne seems to be joining this effort.”
However, Fearne in a statement dismissed Buttigieg’s allegations as “proof that she has no idea of what is going on at Mater Dei”.

He said that 45,285 of the operations carried out last were elective surgeries, and that 7,604 were emergency operations

“These figures don’t include MRIs or ultrasounds. Indeed, 20,000 MRIs took place last year, up from 5,000 in 2008. 33,000 ultrasounds took place last year, up from 17,000 in 2008.”