An appeal by Frank Portelli, former MEP candidate and chief executive officer of St Philip’s Hospital against the Medical Council was null, it argued and called for the Court of Appeal to confirm the court’s previous decision.

Dr Portelli filed an appeal in court against the council last month after it had fined him e10,000 and threatened to strike him off the medical register unless he paid it after Dr Portelli had sent a letter to consultant Louis Buhagiar in 2003 suspending him from St Philip’s because of “repeated complaints” he had received about the professional fees Dr Buhagiar was charging patients. The council found the letter to be defamatory in Dr Buhagiar’s regard.

In his appeal, Dr Portelli claimed that the Medical Council did not have the jurisdiction to fine the CEO of a private hospital, in which capacity he had written the letter. Furthermore, the council failed in its function, as obliged by law, to conclude the inquiry within two years.