A court has rejected a request by a cardiologist to stop government plans to divide the Mater Dei Hospital cardiology department into surgical and medical units.

Mr Justice Joseph R Micallef has lifted a temporary warrant of prohibitory injunction issued at the request of cardiologist Albert Fenech while the issue was considered.

Prof Fenech had argued that the division of the department would be harmful to the administration of the department and to patients. He said a majority of cardiologists and surgeons had signed a declaration against the government's plans.

The court said that two elements were needed for it to uphold the request to stop the division of the department. It had to be proven that going ahead with the plans would breach patients' rights and that the applicant himself had such rights.

The court said it was in no doubt that the decision to split the department was a decision of the Executive, a policy decision within a wider plan for the administration of public health.

Prof Fenech had not claimed any breach of his rights.

The powers of the court to review government decisions were linked to precise rules which, while observing the rule of law, did not cross the delineation of power granted to the institutions in terms of the Constitution.

The government was accountable to Parliament for the way it carried out its  functions so far as efficiency and policy were concerned. The role of the courts was the maintenance of standards of legality rather than ensuring that administrative bodies get their facts right.

It had not been proven that the government's plans to split the cardiology department were illegal or was beyond the government's powers (ultra vires). The concerns shown by Prof Fenech on the consequences of the government's plans did not translate into a prima facie right, the court said.

Prof Fenech's request for the issue of a permanent warrant was therefore rejected.