Nine months delay on Neary report

THE long-awaited report into why Dr Michael Neary unnecessarily removed the wombs of approximately 60 women without their consent or knowledge has still not been presented to Health Minister Mary Harney nine months after the supposed deadline.

Legal experts are examining the document before it is handed over to the Tánaiste who will then present it to the Cabinet. The report was to have been published last March but will now not be published until the New Year.

A spokesperson for the inquiry said yesterday: “The inquiry is proceeding with a necessary legal process common to all judicial inquiries. When that process is concluded the inquiry’s report will be presented to An Tánaiste.”

The Tánaiste said the publication of the Lourdes Hospital Inquiry report was delayed due to the demands of “natural justice”.

Obstetrician Neary was struck off the medical register after a report from the Medical Council into his actions at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda found that he had unnecessarily removed a large number of wombs using a procedure known as Caesarean hysterectomy. This is a rare procedure to control bleeding in childbirth.

Following the publication of this report, the then Health Minister Micheál Martin established an independent inquiry into “certain matters arising from the report”. However, a number of women affected withdrew from the inquiry because they were unhappy with its terms of reference, including the fact that it could not compel witnesses to attend.

The report, by Judge Maureen Harding Clark, also examines the issue of missing medical files of former patients of Dr Neary. The files, which relate to more than 30 patients, are alleged to have gone missing from Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital where he worked from 1974 until 1992.

Many women who had their wombs removed say they are unable to take civil actions against Neary because of the disappearance of medical records.

Earlier this year, the Director of Public Prosecutions directed that no prosecutions be taken in relation to missing medical files. The DPP’s direction is likely to increase pressure on the Government to establish a redress board for women who claim their wombs were needlessly removed.

The Ombudsman and Information Commissioner Emily O’Reilly has called for routine clinical audits in Irish hospitals in light of the affair.

“Everybody makes mistakes, and in order for everybody to learn from mistakes, and in order for future patients to benefit from that learning, this is what should happen,” she said.