St Philip's Hospital closed its doors for two weeks over Christmas because of a lack of booked appointments and difficulties in finding enough staff.

"Most patients do not wish to have their planned operations over the Christmas period and emergency cases are increasingly being referred to Mater Dei Hospital," the private hospital's CEO, Frank Portelli said when contacted.

It was also "difficult" for the hospital to find a full complement of staff to work over the Christmas and New Year period, he added.

Staff members alerted The Times to the shutdown because it meant having to take forced leave or, in the case of part-timers, losing a crucial part of their income.

The hospital was shut on December 23 and reopened on Monday.

Dr Portelli said that although private hospitals were not immune to the world economic situation, the Christmas shutdown was unrelated.

He argued it was not rare for private hospitals to shut their doors for a period of time and that another private hospital on the island had done this before.

In October, The Sunday Times announced the government was considering hiring facilities at St Philip's Hospital to tackle the bed shortage at Mater Dei and to address the perennial problem of waiting lists.

With four operating theatres and 110 beds, the private hospital in Sta Venera could solve almost half the bed shortage problem at Mater Dei, which is estimated to lack 240 beds to meet present day needs.

Asked if the shutdown was related to the waiting list negotiations, Dr Portelli said this was a "separate issue", which "remains a gaping wound for our society".

"In this country we have not established any form of public-private partnership, even though these are part of the electoral manifestos of both major parties," he said.

When contacted, a Health Parliamentary Secretariat spokesman said private hospitals had every right to shut down.

He repeated what was said in a statement issued last month in which the government denied being involved in talks with St Philip's about waiting lists and said that, so far, nothing had changed.