Mercieca risks being reported to Medical Council

Eye surgeon Franco Mercieca risks being reported to the Medical Council for a breach of ethics by fellow ophthalmologist Thomas Fenech. Mr Fenech insists that claims made by Mr Mercieca about his own surgical expertise were incorrect, unethical and put fellow ophthalmologists in a bad light. Mr Mercieca, who is Parliamentary Secretary for Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Active Ageing, had initially justified a Prime Ministerial waiver allowing him to continue practising as a surgeon by claiming he was the “sole ophthalmic surgeon” specialised in certain eye-related operations. When Mr Fenech publicly challenged that statement, Mr Mercieca specified that he was “not indispensable” to the sector but insisted that his expertise meant patients received “a better service”. “In any other country, the Medical Council would have immediately sent for somebody advertising himself as being superior to others in that field and severely reprimanded him,” Mr Fenech said yesterday. Speaking as president of the Maltese Association of Ophthalmologists – he is also chairman of Mater Dei Hospital’s ophthalmology department but was ordered not to speak to the press by hospital CEO Joe Caruana...