Prof. Stephen Brincat is a respectable man and a competent oncologist, and therefore his resignation from the post of head of the Oncology Department at Mater Dei Hospital is not something that can be taken lightly.

His differences with the Health Department on cancer policy pushed him towards taking the step and we are in no position to judge who is right and who is wrong; if there is a right side and a wrong one at all on how cancer treatment plans are implemented. It is, rather, just a question of opinion on strategy.

His claims that there was “interference” on the list of patients to be admitted to hospital are being investigated by the Health Ministry, which however has already said that Prof. Brincat never approached it about this particular issue and that it was the Oncology Department which used to give instructions for terminally-ill patients to be given preference. Still, the matter is now being investigated, and we hope to know more when the inquiry is concluded.

What we do question at this stage is the reason why Prof. Brincat thought it fit to tell The Sunday Times about patients who were killed by chemo toxicity in Gozo the way he did, and how the newspaper reported his comments without probing deeper into the matter.

The way his letter was carried on the front page by the newspaper caused alarm, and one of the reasons for this was because the story made no reference to when these deaths happened. Prof. Brincat was quoted as saying they occurred “in the past” and The Sunday Times did not ask him to be more specific. The average reader understood that these deaths had occurred recently, and was also given the impression that there were many of them.

It was only a day later, on Monday afternoon, that we learnt otherwise, and it turned out that the report was quite misleading.

A statement issued jointly by the Gozo and health ministries said that Prof. Brincat had admitted that the deaths had occurred 15 years ago or even before that. Prof. Brincat recalled two deaths, and these were of people who underwent treatment against the advice of their consultant.

Two deaths are two too many, one may argue, but given the circumstances – that they happened in 1997 or before, that there were only two, and that the patients did not listen to what their consultants were telling them – gives a totally different picture to what The Sunday Times story portrayed.

At the time – 15 years ago – there was no specialist register in place to stipulate the administration of chemotherapy, the ministries said. The introduction of specialist registers since EU accession provides for appropriate safeguards for patients in the overseeing of administration of chemotherapy.

This raises the question why Prof. Brincat chose to make these two deaths public last Sunday, soon after his resignation, and also why The Sunday Times carried his letter without asking him for more details.

Cancer is a cruel disease – anyone who has lost a loved one to the dreaded blight will sympathise. At the time of death, emotions run high and people lash out in grief. In this country where everything is tribal and everything is partisan, the least we can expect is for disease and illness to be treated with the sensitivity it deserves. It is those who are left behind who feel the pain after the passing of a patient – their feelings, emotions and memories should be respected.