The solution is to leave Franco Mercieca where he can best serve the public: in the operating theatre
Franco Mercieca with the PM
I’m really tired of listening to the prime minister jumping through illogical hoops to justify his decision to let Franco Mercieca do as he pleases until such a time as he’s discovered by the press.
Not only has he given Mercieca a ‘waiver’, but he also opens and closes loopholes in that waiver as and when required by public outcry.
Now tonight on Bondi+ he told us the sob-story of a woman who rang him (I don’t believe him, let his wife do that, but anyway) to complain when Mercieca was stopped from operating in private clinics after being discovered doing that by the press (and raking in Eur3,400 for a morning’s work).
“Franco Mercieca was going to operate on my son, and now he can’t, and we’re going to have to send him overseas instead.”
And the PM says he responded: “A decision is a decision.”
I wish Lou had noticed on the spot the glaring inconsistency in this argument. Mercieca has been banned from operating privately, but he is still permitted to operate at the state hospital. So this woman can get her son’s operation done there. Children are always shoved right to the top of the list.
If it’s not an operation that she can get done at the state hospital, then it’s cosmetic, so no sob-stories there.
But this is the craziest, most Through-The-Looking-Glass, chaotic reasoning: there is no earthly reason or justification why Franco Mercieca should be or has to be a parliamentary secretary for the elderly. That job can be done by one of many other Labour MPs. His skills as a surgeon are, however, in short supply and those are the skills he should be using: for himself (to keep his hand in), to provide this high-demand and essential service to others, and also for his bank account.
You don’t even need an O-level in economics to explain or understand why a highly experienced eye surgeon should not be sitting around underemployed as a PS for the elderly, which can be done by others, while his skills go to waste, his earnings are decimated and demand piles up unmet.
Why has this problem been created? It is completely artificial. The solution is simple: Franco Mercieca can and should resign and go back to surgery, where he belongs and where he is most useful to others, and to himself.
Instead of arguing why Mercieca is absolutely essential in surgery (we know he is), the prime minister should be arguing – but then no interviewer bothers to ask him – why he thinks him so essential as a PS under Marie Louise Coleiro.
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Daphne, no one is indispensable. Other doctors can perform the same surgery that Mercieca performs.
[Daphne – That is not the point. This is basic economics. An eye surgeon who can earn tens of thousands of euros a week performing operations that only a few other people are able to do in Malta, and for which demand is high and supply essential, should not be doing instead the ‘job’ of a PS for the elderly for a few thousand euros a year and when that job can be filled by any one of the many tens of Labour MPs and needn’t, quite frankly, exist at all.]
On the point of them shutting up and Mercieca resigning to carry on with his clearly lucrative work, yes I agree with you.
I also think the Income Tax Unit should investigate Mercieca’s tax returns given the fact that even as PS he happily accepted cash. God knows what he did when he was common Joe.
[Daphne – Doctors are the only service providers not obliged at law to give fiscal receipts/issue fiscal invoices, Ghoxrin Punt.]
That’s sick, Daphne. No pun intended. Why so special? Are they healers or heelers?
Appreciated the sarcasm in your comment. However, it was sharp of Daphne to point out that doctors do not have to issue a fiscal receipt.
Your question is a pertinent one: what’s so special about them? I’m not a doctor but IIRC (if I remember correctly) it’s somehow connected to the ‘ex-ufficio’ tax assessments and the doctors’ lock-out of the 70s.
When EFA became prime minister the industrial action was something that needed immediate attention and it seems MAM struck a deal which even excluded them (later on) from issuing a VAT receipt.
You would expect a Labour government to address the issue (social and fiscal equality, bla-bla) but instead condones and defends such behaviour by one of his cronies.
In this particular case, the crux of the matter is that argued by Daphne (who else?): if he’s so needed at hospital (and his clinic by his clients) why make him a PS for the Elderly with a ‘waiver’ to continue with his professional practice?
Bondi should have asked whether that woman’s child could be operated by Mercieca at Mater Dei Hospital, free of charge, on a weekend…but he failed to do so and let Muscat gain points on this issue.
Bondi just goes for the other question when the desired answer is given. He leaves the rest to his listeners.
Ah, but is Franco Mercieca really indispensable to ophthalmic services in this country? Can any one list which surgical procedures can he do which no-one else can?
[Daphne – That isn’t the point. The point is that his skills should be put to best use. Having an eye surgeon working as a PS for the elderly instead of as an eye surgeon is just insane. This doesn’t mean he should do both. It means he should leave the PS for the elderly to somebody else. Why does he want to do it so desperately? There’s no money in it, and a PS under a Minister has no power, and even so – what power, in potty little Malta?]
Fully agree, but if his job can be done by others, it’s further confirmation of what a liar that Muscat is.
Because the political class has been led to believe, by Lawrence Gonzi, mind, that an MP is a nobody unless he or she is a minister. It was he who created the ridiculous “parliamentary assistants”.
This is not just a Lawrence Gonzi problem but a problem which parliaments based on the British system experience.
The best brains and most talented MPs tend to be underutilised in parliament. They also tend to make less money than they would working for the private sector.
This creates frustration and only those who are in in it out of loyalty and duty don’t mind not being asked to do much.
This interesting article deals with the situation in the British parliament.
http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21575766-real-reason-so-many-new-tory-mps-are-grumpy-parliament-itself-dinosaurs-fresh-meat
The point is that the Code of Ethics of the Malta Medical Council FORBIDS that any doctor claims, or allows others to claim on his behalf, that he has superior skills to other doctors.
And as far as I know no “waiver” was ever issued absolving Mercieca from complying with that ethic.
If Franco Mercieca is REALLY dedicated to his profession, in the first place he shouldn’t have entered politics so that he would have ample time and dedication towards his patients as an eye specialist.
Secondly he shouldn’t have ACCEPTED his role as PS. Iridu jibilghu d-dinja f’daqqa.
He should never have accepted to become a PS if he loves surgery so much. If he is really indispensable then the Prime Minister should have taken one right decision to let him operate and not give him a PS post. He’s not even a minister after all, so no big deal.
How I wish you could interview Joseph Muscat or one of his friends.
[Daphne – I don’t do interviews anymore.]
Because Marie Louise Coleiro likes to be on top … sorry, couldn’t resist.
Maybe Marie Louise Coleiro likes it that way? Or, perhaps, Franco Mercieca had figured that he would get the best of all worlds, continuing to carry out operations privately and so maintaining his significant cash flow, as a result of a waiver pre-agreed with Joseph Muscat while, as Permanent Secretary he gets to jump the queue at the Gozo ferry terminal at all times.
Now that the waiver has been nullified in respect of private operations, It is only a matter of time before we see Franco Mercieca resign his PS post.
Or perhaps dear Joseph knew this ‘unfortunate dilemma’ would happen but needed to tip the Gozitan vote.
Another one by the wayside. Squeezed, out and over. Or almost. This Government listens.
And the ethics code is such a bother. Or not?
Exactly. The initial reason for all this was to tip the Gozitan vote. It is a known fact that Mercieca was using his profession to get people who were grateful to him for curing them or some family member, to vote for him.
And of course in Muscat’s typical manner, he only looked as far as the elections result… we’ll see to the rest when the time comes.
Lou Bondi has lost credibility as an independent investigative journalist. By accepting appointments offered him by Joseph Muscat, first to V-18 checkmated by Jason Micallef, then to the National Festivities Foundation, Bondi’s independence has been compromised. It would have been the same had he accepted appointments from the Nationalist government. He has been neutered by Joseph Muscat. On Bondi+ tonight, Lou was interviewing his puppet master.
Mr Bondi has let himself become a Muscat retainer and with him, what is left of WE. Hasn’t anyone noticed the blatant toadying and grovelling to the Labour guests that have been going on of late on other prominent WE programmes?
Oh, well.
Disagree!
I’m afraid that after accepting Muscat’s call for his enemy to be installed on one of his committees Lou has been totally blunted.
He is unable to be the true Lou – the investigative and contentious journalist. He is now as effective as he is when interviewing friends.
I’m sorry but we were treated to Bondi Minus – I guess it’s all over for him anyway.
Franco Mercieca reminds me of puppeteer Wayland Flowers.
And Joseph Muscat is his “Madame” in that photo.
The attempted illogical explanation gave away his bastard morality.
This has been my argument all along in the discussions I have with friends and family. The fact that no journalist has brought this up with the prime minister is really strange.
[Daphne – I don’t think it’s strange. People really easily get trapped into grooves of thinking where they can’t see the obvious. Here we have a situation where journalists are taking the PM’s lead in starting off their reasoning from the point where it is a given that Mercieca HAS TO BE a PS. But he doesn’t have to be a PS, and he shouldn’t have been made one.]
The uglier truth would be if this was an issue of journalists self preservation because otherwise, why is no one insisting that certain appointees, such as the Director of Nursing for example, have their credentials published so that staff know who is actually leading them and taking decisions?
The part about the boy having to be operated in the UK because of the PM’s ban on Mercieca operating privately… the way he said it was really creepy.
‘It’s all your fault for printing stories in the media, checking every move I make. See what happened? I’m drawing the line now. And I can do this again, and again, if you don’t behave and shut up. Do you want to criticize me? No problem, but you’ll have to pay the consequences. And children will suffer.’
With all due respect, but the fact that Mercieca wanted to have his cake and eat it does not reflect well on his supposed medical ethics.
Medicine is supposed to be a vocation rather than simply a job, and if something comes along that gets in its way, you either live up to your vocation and decline or renounce your vocation completely.
Instead, I see someone for whom surgery is only a job, which, despite paying him well, is not enough if he can get a place in government too. Shameful.
I don’t believe the story of this woman’s son when there was such an obvious solution by sending him to Mater Dei Hospital on a Sunday.
Dr Mercieca should return to his profession. After all I haven’t heard anything he has done for us the Maltese elderly. Decide quickly please and show you are “gvern li jisma”.
Unfortunately most interviewers seem to have lost their teeth. Now why am I not surprised?
Apparently he does procedures that are not done by anybody else as reported in the media …cross linking of cornea? And phakice implants. It seems that the former is for disease and not cosmetic as laser.
[Daphne – No, he doesn’t. I checked.]
Not sure whether you have correct info
Cross linking is for keratoconus and is not performed at state hospital as my son did both eyes at st James.
[Daphne – It is only cosmetic eye surgery that is not performed at the expense of the health department, Pan. If there is a medical procedure that can’t be performed at the state hospital, then the health department pays for the patient to get it done outside Malta. It is the cosmetic procedures that are performed at St James, for example procedures which allow people to stop wearing glasses or contact lenses.]