Doctor cleared in first public misconduct case

A DOCTOR was yesterday cleared of two charges of serious professional misconduct in the first medical council fitness to practice case heard in public.

Dr Ross Ardill was before the three-strong committee to answer charges related to his alleged use of “insensitive and inappropriate” language to check whether a female patient — Alma McQuade, a Dublin art therapist whose previous GP was in Ranelagh — had engaged in sexual relations and whether this might be linked to her illness.

Dr Ardill, 42, is the founder and medical director of the Custom House Square Medical Centre near the IFSC in Dublin.

After deliberating for less than an hour, the Irish Medical Council committee found that while the language used by Dr Ardill during the consultation — in which he admitted to referring to men’s “willy-bits” and “rumpy pumpy” — was “inappropriate and insensitive”, it did not amount to professional misconduct. On a second allegation, that he suggested a treatment plan to help Ms McQuade’s sleep pattern, which included among the options having sex when it was not medically justifiable or did not take the patient’s circumstances into account — earlier in the consultation it had been established that she was single — the committee said this was “not proven as a fact” and “not proven beyond reasonable doubt”, so the issue of professional misconduct did not arise.

The case was the first of its kind to be held in public following the implementation of sections of the Medical Practitioners Act 2007.

The complaint was brought by Ms McQuade, who works as an art psychotherapist, mostly on Dublin’s northside, and who had previously paid a number of visits to the Custom House Clinic.

By the time she saw Dr Ardill for the first time on September 25, 2007, she had been sick for a number of weeks and had attended the A&E at St James’s Hospital. She was suffering from headaches and was sleeping for up to 12 hours a day.

The complainant said during the consultation Dr Ardill had asked her “when was the last time I was close to a man’s naked willy”.

Dr Ardill denied this and said he had asked her whether she had been “next or near a man’s willybits in the last six months,” and said this was phraseology he had used on many occasions before and which had not caused offence.

He said he asked these questions to ascertain if she might be pregnant or had contracted a sexually transmitted infection, as the “constellation of symptoms” she was displaying indicated a viral infection.

Ms McQuade said towards the end of the consultation, Dr Ardill gave advice as to how she might get a better sleep pattern, which included drinking a warm alcoholic drink and to “find a willy and have sex”.

Dr Ardill denied this and said instead he used the term “rumpy pumpy”, which again he had used with other patients without causing offence.

In retrospect he said he accepted the language was inappropriate, he had not used it again and had apologised to the patient.

The hearing heard from Kilkenny-based GP Dr John Cuddihy who said the case was “serious with a small ‘s’” while Dr Brian Maurer spoke of Dr Ardill’s excellent record of patient relations during his time working at St Vincent’s Hospital in the late 1990s.

Speaking afterwards, Dr Ardill said: “I am just relieved that it’s finished.”