Medical Council to defend misconduct decisions in court

A LEGAL challenge by two doctors found guilty of professional misconduct will be met head-on by the Medical Council.

Yesterday the council issued a statement saying it will vigorously defend two separate sets of High Court proceedings issued on behalf of Dr John F Murphy, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, and Professor Walter Prendiville, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the Coombe Women’s Hospital.

The two are seeking a judicial review of the Medical Council finding against them of professional misconduct for their role in exonerating disgraced obstetrician Dr Michael Neary.

In 1998, Doctors Murphy and Prendiville, as well as a third obstetrician, Dr Bernard Stuart, also of the Coombe, reviewed nine of Neary’s patient cases at the behest of the Irish Hospital Consultants’ Association after concerns were raised about his high rate of caesarean hysterectomies.

They cleared the way for his return to work at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. It was only after a hospital consultant based in Britain expressed concerns in a second review of the same nine cases that Dr Neary was removed from duty. He was subsequently found guilty of professional misconduct and struck off.

The findings of the Stuart/Prendiville/Murphy review were the subject of a formal complaint to the Medical Council last year by lobby group, Patient Focus. On February 6, the Medical Council upheld its fitness-to-practice (FTP) committee finding of professional misconduct against the three doctors. The three had 21 days to seek a judicial review of the findings, which doctors Murphy and Prendiville did on Monday.

Yesterday, Patient Focus said it was taken aback at Dr Murphy’s decision to seek a judicial review.

Dr Murphy last week resigned as Royal College of Physicians of Ireland president saying he didn’t wish to compromise the college’s reputation.

The decision by doctors Murphy and Prendiville to mount a legal challenge is not unexpected in light of the statement they made after the council found them guilty of professional misconduct. At the time they said they believed it was “fundamentally wrong”.