The Attorney General has told the Ministry of Health that no amendments to the Ombudsman Act are needed as existing legislation already provides protection to patients and employees who would use the Public-Private Partnership(PPP) health service managed by VGH, Minister Fearne told The Malta Independent yesterday.

This comes after comes after the Ombudsman wrote, in his annual report, that the entire population of Gozo was being “practically excluded from direct access to the Commissioner of Health when being treated in the now privately owned general hospital.” This, the Ombudsman said, was an “unacceptable situation that improperly discriminates against a section of the population.”

Asked for a reaction, Mr Fearne said the Health Ministry has already discussed the matter with the Ombudsman and both parties agree that all Maltese and Gozitan tax payers should have access to the Ombudsman, and by extension the Commissioner for Health.

The Ombudsman’s report states that his jurisdiction in areas where essential services, which were previously offered by the government, are now being wholly or partially privatised and are being made available by the private sector through companies in which the government has no controlling interest are being “significantly eroded”.

This, the Ombudsman believes, will infringe the right of aggrieved persons to have access to his office.

In the health sector, the report says both patients and government employees are “already experiencing a marked diminution of their right of access to the Commissioner for Health and the Ombudsman”

The Ombudsman also recalled that the Commissioner for Health, who had expressed an inability to conduct his own initiative investigations, had sought assurances from the Ministry for Health that public private partnerships for the provision of essential health services would not prejudice the right of patients and employees within the public health care sector; and that the private sector provider have recourse to the Commissioner and the Office of the Ombudsman.

"Little progress was registered on this delicate issue till the end of the year under review."

The report suggests that, with regards to PPPs, the powers granted to the Ombudsman should be limited only to the provision of the essential service to patients and “would in no way impinge on other activities of a purely commercial nature of the private companies providing the service."

The Ombudsman and the Commissioner for Health have submitted amendments to the Ombudsman Act for the consideration of Government.