Neary to face government inquiry over womb ops

A GOVERNMENT inquiry will be held into how doctor Michael Neary unnecessarily removed women’s wombs for years.

Health Minister Michael Martin signalled an inquiry at a meeting with members of the Medical Council earlier this week and department officials confirmed his intentions yesterday

An announcement is not expected until after a meeting with patients’ representatives later this month.

The inquiry is expected to investigate claims that staff at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda alerted management many years before two student midwives revealed the gynaecologist’s activities in 1998.

There are also allegations, made yesterday by advocacy group Patient Focus, that letters of complaint were sent to the hospital as early as 1990 but that they have since gone missing.

An unrepentant Neary, who believes he acted correctly and blamed the unavailability of blood, the medical culture at the hospital and crisis situations, was found to have unnecessarily removed the wombs of ten women from 1995 to 1998 and has been struck off the medical register.

The council considered complaints from 37 patients and found 21 warranted an inquiry. In ten cases he was found guilty of professional misconduct, in five he had no case to answer while six remain outstanding.

The 61-year-old faces a criminal inquiry. The council report has been handed over to gardaí.

Sheila O’Connor, of Patient Focus, said: “Most decidedly criminal charges should be brought against him.”

The report concluded Neary was guilty of profound errors of judgement; that he showed a regrettable absence of insight into the harm done to the women and was allowed to continue practicing without any peer review of his work.

Mr Martin said he was “shocked and appalled” at the findings of the report, describing it as a “dreadful indictment of the treatment of the women concerned”.

“They have been scarred, both physically and emotionally and their family lives have been devastated,” he said.

The Minister has come under pressure to introduce legislation to allow proper policing of doctors.