Medical Council to discuss High Court ruling

A SPECIAL meeting of the Medical Council will take place on January 16to discuss the implications of a High Court ruling that overturned its findings of professional misconduct against two obstetricians.

The ruling by Mr Justice Peter Kelly was critical of the manner in which the Medical Council and its fitness to practise committee (FPC) made a finding of professional misconduct against Dr John F Murphy and Professor Walter Prendeville.

Both doctors were involved in producing a report that allowed Dr Michael Neary, an obstetrician at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, to continue working after concerns had been raised about his surgical practice.

Dr Neary carried out 129 hysterectomies over a 25-year period, needlessly removing the wombs of some women, and was subsequently struck off the medical register.

Last month, the High Court quashed a decision by the Medical Council to uphold the decision of a fitness to practise inquiry, which found Prof Prendeville, Dr Murphy and a third medic had been negligent in clearing Dr Neary of any wrongdoing in 1998 after reviewing nine of his caesarean hysterectomy cases.

In his judgment, Mr Justice Kelly strongly criticised the handling of the case by the council and its FPC.

The judge found the FPC failed to give any reasons for its majority decision that the doctors were guilty of professional misconduct and that both doctors were left “in the dark” as to the basis for those findings.

This was all the more so because the committee report did not specify the evidence before it, the judge said.

The judgment, upholding the legal challenges by Dr Murphy and Prof Prendeville, has implications for the future conduct of inquiries into allegations of professional misconduct against doctors.

The council has not yet decided whether to appeal the High Court decision to the Supreme Court.

President of the Medical Council Dr Colm Quigley said: “We have no comment to make at this stage.”