Seven young doctors who made it through the selection process for a job at Mater Dei but were then told that the process was cancelled had to be employed by the health department before it (the department) could take on other new trainee doctors.

This is in line with a court decree given today.

The seven doctors had complained that they passed the interviews and examinations as trainee general practitioners and received the results on May 9.

But the result was retracted on August 7 and the doctors were told that the process had been cancelled and would start from scratch, lawyer Edward Debono told Mr Justice Tonio Mallia.

The doctors first sought and obtained a provisional warrant stopping the health department from going ahead with a new selection process before they were given the jobs.

In today’s sitting, Mr Justice Mallia made the decision final and handed down a decree in which he said that “once the published results have not yet been validly and definitively cancelled, (meaning without contestation or after a court decision or tribunal) their request should be upheld”.

The doctors, Daniel Grixti Soler, Mario Refalo, Tania Cardona, Andrew Farrugia Wismayer, Veronica Aquilina, Muhaiyo Bartolo Khodjayeva and Yanika Vella filed the for the warrant against the Public Service Commission, the Health Minister, the Director General of Public Health and the Cabinet Secretary.