Poggiolini Barred From Operation Abroad

Duilio Poggiolini, the former director general of the Italian Ministry of Health and president of the European Union Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products, wants to visit an ophthalmic specialist in France or the USA for a cataract operation on his left eye, but the Italian authorities have declined to let him have his passport.

Prof Poggiolini, one of hundreds of leading Italians being investigation under the corruption scandals, told the Naples judiciary that his right eye is atrophied, and the cataract means that he is almost blind, and he wants to consult an international specialist in France or the USA. The judges' response has been that he can get adequate therapeutic assistance from the health service which he ran for 20 years.

His lawyer, Vincenzo Siniscalchi, says he will appeal, although Prof Poggiolini has already consulted doctors at the Aquila hospital, and eye specialists Andrea Planner and Giancarlo Falcinelli in Rome. Prof Falcinelli says it is not generally necessary these days to go abroad to have a cataract removed. "It can be done effectively and well in Italy," he says.