Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has called into question the credibility of shadow health minister Stephen Spiteri, after Lovin Malta revealed he had been selling medical certificates to his patients without even seeing them. 

“The [Vitals] hospital contact will be transferred to a major US company [Steward Global Healthcare], but of course the Opposition had to find the negative side to it,” Muscat said during a phone-in on One Radio. “We are ready to speak about this deal in Parliament, but I can’t help but laugh and smile that the criticism is coming from a person who has been accused of selling medical certificates over the telephone. Perhaps he’d do better to first address the basics of the medical system if he wants to have the credibility to speak about larger projects.”

Muscat’s dig is the first time a Labour politician referred to the racket of medical certificates being signed and sold at the Kalkara pharmacy at which he is resident, since Lovin Malta exposed it late last year. After hearing several phone calls, Lovin Malta posed as a patient, called Brown’s Pharmacy to ask for a medical certificate from Spiteri and published the entire recording. The receptionist confirmed that patients could just leave a note with their details at the pharmacy, pay €5 and pick up the signed medical certificate in the evening. 

Spiteri appears to have changed this practice since then. When Lovin Malta visited the pharmacy to test it out, the receptionist added our names to a list of patients and told us to return in the afternoon when Spiteri would be in attendance. 

Shadow health minister Stephen Spiteri

Spiteri confirmed the Malta Medical Council has contacted him about the story, but denied that he is under investigation. 

“I am not being investigated. I have been contacted by the Medical Council, and I told them I will give them a response at a later date,” he said, when confronted at a press conference this week. “I repeat that I deny the story completely.”

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Tim Diacono

Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]