The Secretariat for the Elderly and Community Care said the telephone system in female wards 5 and 6, and all other wards at St Vincent de Paul residence for the elderly, is and has been functioning normally, contrary to claims by the opposition’s spokespersons, Marie Louise Coleiro Preca and Silvio Parnis.

Residents and relatives could communicate without any problem, as could have been verified with a phone call to the wards in question, prior to issuing the statement, “aimed only at garnering political advantage”, the secretariat said.

The alleged fault, it added, affected only a commercial card phone in the same ward, one of the 30 currently in place at the residence, which for a short period could not take incoming calls.

This fault was rectified by the company in question in a few days. During this period, relatives were still able to contact residents at any time of the day through the residence’s telephone operators.