Prime Minister Robert Abela has denied involvement in the hospitals deal that was annulled by a court on Friday. 

Abela appeared to be answering a journalist's question outside Auberge de Castille on Friday evening, later posting the footage of the encounter to his Facebook page

Asked whether his position as prime minister was still tenable following the judgment, Abela said that the court had annulled agreements signed by the government in 2014 and 2015 at a point in time when he had not yet been elected to parliament. 

However, at the time, Abela, who is a lawyer by profession, was also serving as a legal advisor to former prime minister Joseph Muscat. 

Abela said that the government will be filing a court application to reduce the window of appeals against the judgment that has annulled the concession of three state hospitals to a private operator, Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Friday. 

Abela said that after an initial analysis of the judgment with fellow ministers, the government had decided to file the application in court tomorrow. 

He did not say whether the government was planning to appeal.

Steward Health Care has said it will contest "all allegations of wrongdoing" in its regard. In a statement on Friday, it slammed the 'allegations' made against it in the judgement as "outrageous and without merit" and said it was reserving the right to safeguard its interests in both local and international courts. 

"The law gives every person 30 days to appeal any sentence and we will be asking for that term to be shortened," Abela said. 

"If an appeal is filed, we will also be requesting that it is heard with urgency for the matter to be resolved in a definitive way." 

He assured that medical services at St Luke's, Karin Grech and the Gozo General Hospital would continue normally and that employees of the hospitals were guaranteed to retain their job "no matter the outcome".

Abela added that the government would be submitting a request in parliament on Monday to discuss the issue of the concession with all the members of the House.

Earlier on Friday, Opposition Leader Bernard Grech said that the opposition would also be filing a motion in parliament to discuss the judgment and urged the public to turn out outside parliament in support.