Dr Louis Buhagiar and St Philips Funds
Ms Angele Buhagiar run’s Dr Louis Buhagiar’s Clinic
The Clinic is called the Medical Centre, it was however not licenced to operate as a Clinic by the Health Authorities
The enclosed correspondence is self explanatory
19/8/2003
Ms Angele Buhagiar
The Medical Centre
Blue Grotto Avenue
Zurrieq
ZRQ 04
Dear Madam,
I refer to your letter of the 4th August 2003.
I note that in your letter you have now confirmed that the Medical Centre did receive funds which funds were sent you in error, although Dr Louis Buhagiar had initially denied that you had received these funds.
You claim that these funds were sent to you by an insurance company TPU with whom you have many other claims.
We have in our possession a copy of the Swift Transfer Advice Reference Swift ISN BARCGB22 976378, which confirms that these funds were not sent to you by TPU as you claim.
These funds £1893.86 (Lm1219.08) were sent to you (alias Centre for Medical Assistance (Sic) AC number 784069427 HSBC Zurrieq) in error by the patient himself Mr. W Bantoft.
The Swift Transfer Document dated 11/10/2002 indicates Mr. Bantoft as the debtor as well as his account number 20821840531979.
You of course had already received payment for Dr Buhagiar’s fees for services rendered to Mr. Bantoft by a similar Swift transfer - Swift ISN BARCGB22 691726 on 18/7/2002, which renders your version of the facts completely untruthful.
In view of these facts, and your persistence in refusing to refund these funds I have been instructed by Dr Frank Portelli our CEO to inform the CID fraud squad of these events.
Finance Officer
St Philips Hospital
Medical Council president must resign - Frank Portelli
Dr Frank Portelli, the CEO of St Philips Hospital, is insisting that the president of the Medical Council must resign over the council’s decision to erase his name from the medical register unless he pays a fine, a decision which, he said, was null and void.
The decision was over a letter Dr Portelli wrote to Dr Louis Buhagiar in his capacity as hospital CEO on July 16, 2003 informing Dr Buhagiar he was being suspended from St Philips Hospital because of “repeated complaints we had received about the professional fees Dr Buhagiar was charging patients”.
Dr Portelli said that the letter suspending Dr Buhagiar from St Philips Hospital was not written in his personal capacity since no doctor could suspend another unless he occupied a position of authority, but in his capacity as a CEO of St Philips. So the Medical Council acted outside the powers ascribed to it by law.
“The President of the Council Dr Josella Farrugia signed the decision of the Medical Council condemning me to a punishment of a fine of €10,000, together with a conditional punishment that if this fine is not paid by October 1 my name will be erased from the medical register.
” The decision fining him, Dr Portelli said, stated that it was according to the Medical Council (Penalties) Regulations 2009 when the law quoted actually pertained to the Commissioners for Justice Petitions (Local Tribunals) (Amendment) Regulations, 2009. As it was a requisite of the law that the article of the law being breached had to be quoted when a judgement was delivered, the sentence in his regard was null and void, he said.
“I expect that the only honourable way out is for the president of the Medical Council to resign from the position which she holds having been appointed to this position in the first instance by the Prime Minister,” Dr Portelli said.
EYE Communications
