Doctors in Neary case treated ‘unlawfully’

THE Medical Council acted unfairly and unlawfully in finding that two consultant obstetricians were guilty of professional misconduct over reports exonerating the obstetric practice of Dr Micheal Neary at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, the High Court was told yesterday.

There was no evidence on which the council could have based such a finding, Nicholas Butler SC, for Prof Walter Prendiville, said.

While two other doctors had told the council they disagreed with the obstetricians’ findings that there was no evidence of questionable clinical judgment or faulty decision making by Dr Neary in performing a number of Caesarean hysterectomies, those doctors had also emphasised the obstetricians’ reports were prepared in circumstances of great constraint and without all the information later available, he said.