Health minister grilled over secretariat member’s involvement in IVF ultrasounds

Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia was grilled by Nationalist MP Jose Cassar over the involvement of a member of his secretariat - who is handling customer care affairs - with follicle tracking procedures, related to IVF fertility treatments.

In a series of statements and counter-queries, Farrugia was repeatedly questioned by Cassar regarding the involvement of the person in question with IVF follicle tracking procedures while also carrying out customer care work in the minister's secretariat.

In response, Farrugia confirmed that while the person in question is performing customer care duties while also working at Mater Dei and performing follicle tracking procedures, he said that this person was not being paid for these ministry services, and was doing so outside normal Mater Dei working hours.

Farrugia pressed Cassar on how the government had started follicle tracking procedures, insisting that given that such procedures represent the start of IVF treatments, the government was forging ahead with a procedure that still does not have any established operational procedure.

Cassar also questioned who was deciding who would be eligible for this procedure, given that the aforementioned operational procedures were still absent, and whether these patients were being referred to the private sector for the procedure.

In response, Farrugia said that the patients are being chosen on the basis of Mater Dei data pertaining to fertility rates, and that the process was being managed by the Director of the fertility department.

Farrugia also said that based on the information he was provided with, the people who are receiving such follicle tracking are not being sent to the private sector.

He also said that all such patients were Mater Dei patients, and denied that there is a situation where patients are being sent to the private sector for the procedures without a file.

Farrugia also said that these efforts fall within the government's plans to work on setting up IVF treatment within the Maltese Health sector by establishing an Authority to administer the process, as well as allocating funding for the setting-up of the necessary facilities.

"We have been working to prepare the authority and secure the funding so that, by the end of the year, we are fully operational in this regard. This testing has begun on parents so that the government is able to fast track the project and be in a position to announce it as soon as possible."