The office Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia has opened at Mater Dei Hospital is made up of a room that is used by other health professionals when the minister is not there, Dr Farrugia told Parliament.

In reply to a question submitted by Nationalist MP Claudette Buttigieg, Dr Farrugia said that the objective of such an office close to the Emergency Department was for him to be closer to the patients and workers, and no staff complement is attached to it.

He said he preferred his work at the hospital to be close to the hub of activities, and the room in question is therefore used together with other health professionals who meet there once a week.

In this room, the minister said he meets the management and other stakeholders without them having to go to Valletta and meet in the minister’s office,.

The first office that he had been given for his use was on the fourth floor and was cut off from the realities of the hospital.