I was most surprised to read (July 3) that Frank Portelli has been fined €10,000 by the Medical Council, and that if he does not pay up within three months his name would be struck off the Medical Register. My first impression was that Dr Portelli must be a criminal, dealing in drugs or laundering money. But on reading further it resulted that he was insisting that patients should not be exorbitantly charged, especially in his hospital.

I was shocked when I read that consultants can charge whatever they like for their service and that the hospital management could not instruct consultants what rates to charge.

In 2000 we took our 89-year-old-mum to St Philip's Hospital as she was in a very bad state of health. Dr Portelli informed us that due to her medical problems and her advanced age, nothing could be done for her. My brothers and I asked if she could be seen by a consultant and Dr Portelli recommended someone who, in fact, confirmed the prognosis. Our mother passed away five days later.

To my surprise, the consultant's bill was in the hundreds of Maltese liri. I rushed to Dr Portelli and asked how this could be, and even he appeared surprised. After a moment of silence he asked me what I would expect to pay. I told him these exact words: I will pay 10 times as much as a skilled labourer gets paid. The consultant, after all, had not spent a long time with my mum.

I was asked if she was covered by insurance, which she was not. Dr Portelli, who was very helpful (and I wish we had more doctors like him) intervened and managed to reduce the charge by more than half. Hats off to Dr Portelli. He also did his best to reduce his hospital's bill for me to make up for the consultant's fee.