Files missing, womb inquiry finds

AN INQUIRY into a Drogheda hospital where many women’s wombs were needlessly removed is believed to reveal that the medical files of more than 200 patients are missing.

According to a report in The Sunday Business Post, the Lourdes Inquiry - set up to investigate practices at the maternity unit of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda - has learned over 200 patient files and theatre records of surgical procedures have vanished.

This is six times greater than the number of files previously reported as missing and may be the reason for the delayed publication of the report of the inquiry, which Health Minister Mary Harney was presented with on January 27.