Extend Neary probe, urges patient’s group

THE State inquiry into Dr Michael Neary — who was struck off the medical register for needlessly removing the wombs of 10 women — should be extended to include women whose ovaries were removed and women whose babies died shortly after birth.

The campaign group, Patient Focus, called for the inquiry extension yesterday after spending more than an hour with Health Minister, Micheál Martin, discussing the inquiry's terms of reference, expected to be finalised next month.

The Medical Council found Dr Neary, who practiced at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, guilty of professional misconduct last year for performing a series of needless hysterectomies.

Patient Focus has been pushing for a public statutory inquiry so it can compel witnesses to appear before it. It is now understood that it will be non-statutory, but that the minister is prepared to reconsider its legal status if compellability becomes an issue. It is alleged that Neary, who was suspended in 1998, performed needless hysterectomies on more than 100 women sometimes within minutes of them giving birth. In some cases only ovaries were removed and there is concern over a number of babies who died shortly after they were born.

His rate of caesarean hysterectomies was 20 times that of a leading Dublin maternity hospital. Around 65 former patients are suing him for compensation.

Neary's surgical excesses were only revealed after two midwives complained to the local health board about his conduct in October 1998.

Sheila O'Connor of Patient Focus said they now knew nurses and midwives had expressed their concerns about Neary in the mid-90s.

Concern was also expressed at yesterday's meeting that a third of the files relating to the medical history of up to 140 women that cover the period when Neary was conducting needless gynaecological procedures are missing.