The Nationalist Party's health spokesman, Claudio Grech, is arguing that the time had come to ensure that cancer patients are not priced out of the medication that they might require, stating that the present situation created inequality.

Mr Grech was speaking to the press following a visit to the Sir Paul Boffa Hospital in Floriana, which is a specialised hospital for oncology, palliative care and dermatology.

A new oncology hospital next to Mater Dei Hospital should start admitting patients before the end of next year, and Mr Grech augured that the migration would go smoothly, emphasising the change in location should be accompanied by an increase in human resources.

But the MP also said that now that this migration - which he described as a "leap of quality" in the treatment of cancer in Malta - was imminent, it was time to address another issue faced by a number of cancer patients: that of expensive medication which is not provided free of charge.

Mr Grech observed that few could afford to pay for medication which cost thousands of euros every month, and said that the present state of affairs discriminated between those who could afford to pay and possibly prolong their lives and those who could not.

He emphasised that the situation was not caused by the present government, but one which developed over the years, and called for a debate on the best way forward to ensure that patients have access to all the medication they required.

The MP argued that access to cancer medication should not be established on an ad hoc basis, calling for the development of protocols determining when, and under what circumstances, medications should be provided, independently of financial considerations.