Neary victims to begin receiving State compensation

WOMEN who had their wombs removed unnecessarily at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda over a 30-year period, will next month begin the process of receiving compensation.

The Department of Health said it is finalising details of the Redress Scheme for the victims of disgraced obstetrician, Dr Michael Neary, and these will be announced by the minister in the coming weeks.

A redress scheme was promised almost a year ago after a report by Judge Maureen Harding Clark found that Dr Neary carried out 129 hysterectomies between 1974 and 1998.

Patient Focus, which represents the victims, yesterday said that the compensation scheme is needed quickly to help heal the heartache for many women.

Spokeswoman for the group, Sheila O’Connor, said: “It’s a year now since the report was published and nine years since this story first broke. We need to get the redress scheme up and running sooner rather than later so women can just draw a line under the whole thing.”

It is expected that 150 victims will be eligible for compensation of between €60,000 and €380,000 from the State compensation tribunal. Forty-two patients whose files went missing from Drogheda are also eligible for compensation.

It is estimated that the total cost of the scheme will be between €25 million and €35 million.

Meanwhile three obstetricians who provided reports in 1998 clearing Dr Neary of any wrongdoing have been found guilty of professional misconduct.

The finding follows a Medical Council Fitness to Practice hearing into the actions of Prof Walter Prendiville and Dr Bernard Stuart of the Coombe Hospital and Dr John Murphy of Holles Street.

The Medical Council must now consider the finding and decide early next month what sanctions, if any, will apply.

Patient Focus had made a formal complaint about the three, who conducted a review of the work of Mr Neary, and recommended that he could continue working.

Commenting on the case yesterday, Minister for Health, Mary Harney, said: “You can never be certain that a case similar to the Neary one could not happen again. I am certainly happy that it could not go so long without being investigated.”

She said: “All I will say is this: we have a regime in Ireland to ensure patients are protected and that is the job of the Medical Council and I have confidence in the Medical Council doing the job it is charged with doing.”