With reference to Dr Mark Bugeja’s reply (TMIS, 5 July), may I conclude, just for the record, that official statistics prove that in my constituency, apart from Pietá (Floriana, Valletta, Marsa, Hamrun, St Venera), the number of people with Pink Cards by means test is 1,262 out of a nation-wide total of 10,420 (12 per cent) while the number of citizens availing themselves of the Schedule V scheme (some chronic diseases – not means-tested) is 7,494 out of a total of 79,371 (nine per cent). As there are 13 electoral districts, a fair share would have been around seven per cent.

However, I am aware that Dr Mark Bugeja is correct in stating that “many patients in ‘northern’ areas also rely heavily on Schedule V cards (chronic diseases) and Pink Cards (which nowadays seems to be restricted to diabetic patients rather than the socially underprivileged).”

In fact, when addressing the House regarding the Social Affairs Committee report on Child Poverty last Monday, I felt I could not start without referring to what Peruvian Gustavo Gutierrez OP stated when invited to Malta by Discern a few years ago to deliver a speech regarding Spirituality and the Preferential Option for the Poor. The key word is “preferential” and this is what he had to say: “As a Christian, who believes in the God of Jesus Christ, I must prefer the poor, but I cannot say that, therefore, the non-poor are not relevant to me. This would not be a Christian attitude… But, at the same time we claim that some persons are first. Here lies a tension, not an opposition…”

As Dr Bugeja implied, I believe that when sustainability is at risk, a Government with a social conscience must prefer the socially underprivileged!

Dr Jean-Pierre Farrugia MD, MP

HAMRUN