Maternity hospitals face probe over operations

THE HUMAN Rights Commission (HRC) has begun a preliminary investigation into brutal operations carried out on Irish women by religious run maternity hospitals in the 1950s to 1980s.

The HRC is examining a hundred cases of symphysiotomies — a procedure of sawing through the pelvis.

The procedure was carried out on women who needed Caesarean sections.

Hundreds of the operations were carried out in mostly Catholic hospitals such as Holles Street and the Coombe Women’s Hospital, mostly in the 1950s and 1960s.

They have left permanent health problems such as incontinence, irregular bleeding and severe pain that persist to this day.

The latest investigation follows a number of appeals by Patient Focus — a campaign group originally established to get justice for women who had their wombs removed unnecessarily by disgraced obstetrician, Dr Michael Neary.

Spokesperson for the group, Sheila O’Connor, said: “There are a hundred women in Patient Focus who had symphysiotomies.

“They are very wounded and very hurt about what happened to them.

“A lot of them are incontinent and in terrible pain. Most of them were not looked after properly after the surgery.”

When details of the scandal were first reported in the Irish Examiner in 2001, the then Minister for Health, Micheál Martin sought a report from the Institution of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists over the practice.

In the report, the institute defended the practice. They said the reasons for the surgery were more complex and insisted it was used as a safer alternative to the then relatively dangerous caesarean section.

However Ms O’Connor said: “We believe it was done for religious reasons rather than an alternative to caesarean sections.

“We have made a request to the HRC to have a preliminary investigation and they have agreed to do that.”

The HRC said it would not comment on any cases because of a strict code of confidentiality.

Ms O’Connor also said she believes there are more “Neary-type cases” which have not yet come to light.

She said: “We get so many complaints in here from women... there is bound to be one or two more cases similar to the Neary case.”