Updated 1.09pm with funeral details

John Rizzo Naudi, a doctor and Nationalist Party politician who served as a member of parliament for five legislatures, has died aged 96. 

Born in Msida and educated at the Lyceum and UK, Rizzo Naudi was first elected to parliament in 1976 and would remain in parliament for 20 years, exiting political life in November 1995. 

He served as parliamentary secretary for the elderly once the PN returned to government in 1987 and then as a parliamentary secretary in the social policy ministry between 1992 and April 1995. 

Rizzo Naudi played a key role in developing Malta’s nursing sector, playing a key role in setting up the Institute of Healthcare, which became the first educational institution in Malta to offer nursing degrees. 

A medical doctor by profession, Rizzo Naudi was a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and a medical registrar at St Luke’s Hospital in the 1960s, starting that job after a seven-year stint in Malaysia as a young medic. 

He would go on to lecture in medicine at the University of Malta and serve as chancellor of the University, founded the Haemophilia Society of Malta in 1982 and helped found the Voluntary Lay Missionaries three years later. 

Rizzo Naudi was married and had three children. 

His funeral will be held on Monday, April 25 at 2.00pm at Msida parish church.

In a statement, the PN paid tribute to Rizzo Naudi and said the country was still benefitting to this very day from decisions he had taken in the health sector. 

PN leader Bernard Grech described him as a "beloved politician who did a lot of good" and was respected by all.  

PN deputy leader David Agius was among the first to offer the family his condolences. “A real man, a doctor who cared for his patients and a politician who was loved by all,” Agius wrote on social media.