Medical body aids Carmody investigation
The complaints were made during inquiries carried out by the Medical Council, which yesterday took the unprecedented step of making a formal recommendation that Dr Carmody never be registered to practice in Ireland again.
Council President Dr John Hillery said it was a bone of contention that the recommendation carried no legal weight in other countries but he said the council’s sister bodies abroad would be advised of the decision.
Dr Hillery confirmed that Dr Carmody, who was struck off the medical register earlier this year and whose home and clinic in Killaloe, Co Clare were raided by gardaí earlier this week, had been found guilty of professional misconduct on all grounds brought before the inquiry into his fitness to practice.
These included grave concerns over the treatments he offered and administered, the promises he made, the standard of care given to his patients and the unrealistic expectations he sold them.
Commenting on the highly controversial light treatments Dr Carmody sold to terminally ill patients at thousands of euro per session, Dr Hillery said: “I used the term ‘nauseated’ before and I would repeat that.”
The council’s move to ensure a life-long ban on Dr Carmody came as Minister for Health Micheál Martin published draft legislation for a new Medical Practitioners Act which would give the council increased powers to monitor, investigate and discipline below-standard doctors.
The draft proposes giving the council a new power to investigate anyone claming to be a medical practitioner or offering medical services and to seek an injunction stopping improper activities.
Currently the council can only inquire into people already on their register, a restriction that prevented them from taking any direct action against Dr William Porter, who was struck off in the US but was practicing in Ireland without ever registering here.
The new act also proposes a competency assurance scheme that would require doctors to undertake ongoing training, testing and peer review throughout their career to prove that they remain up to standard.
Dr Hillery said while he had some concern about making such a scheme compulsory, he welcomed the idea. “It would lessen the risk of certain things happening again,” he said, citing the Dr Carmody case and the scandal surrounding disgraced Drogheda obstetrician Michael Neary.
Another provision in the act would require that all fitness-to-practice inquiries be held in public except where the complainant or accused could show convincing reason why they should be kept private.
The closed doors policy had been strongly criticised by victims of Michael Neary who said the general public should have been entitled to hear the case against him.
