Cardiologist Albert Fenech gave evidence in court today to explain why he is insisting that the Cardiology Department at Mater Dei Hospital should not be split in two, as the authorities intend doing.

The court last week provisionally upheld Prof Fenech's request to issue a warrant to stop the plans to split the department into medical and surgical sections.

Prof Fenech said that only two of the 11 doctors who worked in the department had not signed a petition against the division. The department, he said, was not consulted and there was no scientific, administrative or reasonable explanation given for the split.

Even the biggest hospital in the world, Cleveland Clinic, where 150 doctors worked in cardiology, had the same system as in Malta.

Cardio surgeons and a cardiologists worked hand in hand. 

He said he was shocked that the governemnt had mentioned a reduction of waiting time as one of the reasons to split the department, since waiting time was very short, about one month.

If needs be, operations could be conducted immediately or the following day. The problem was the throughput, because there were not enough nursing staff to man both operating theatres.

Lawyer Bridget Gafa' representing the Health Ministry, asked whether the government's move was seen as purely administrative or clinical. Prof Fenech said it was an administrative decision which had a bearing on the clinical side.  Having two departments would cause problems of coordination.

Prof Fenech said he was chairman of the department for 10 years but was never asked for his opinion.

"This decision was taken out of ignorance," he said.

In submissions, lawyers Andrew Borg Cardona and Jason Azzopardi, representing Prof Fenech, said he had an interest in this case not only as an ordinary citizen but also as a doctor in the interests of the patients.

The court needed to decide what was in the best interests of patients. This was not an issue of trial and error and this experiment should not be done.

Dr Gafa' said that to claim that there was the potential for patients to be harmed was a useless argument as things could go either way. The decision was not cast in stone but there was no proof that this process would harm patients or Prof Fenech's work with his patients.

Mr Justice Joseph R Micallef said he expects to hand down a decision next week.