Surgeon failed to give report on boy’s crash death

A SURGEON, who has agreed to be censured by the Medical Council for failing to provide a medical report for a teenage road traffic victim, said his patients were his primary concern, not the interests of the legal profession.

John Flynn, 69, who works as a locum at Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe, Co Galway, gave a sworn undertaking at a fitness to practice inquiry yesterday to meet all requests for such reports in the future.

Mr Flynn, who treated the 14-year-old boy following the crash on October 30, 2003, declined repeated requests between 2005 and 2008 for a medical report needed for a legal action following the incident.

He provided the medical report in January this year after lawyers for the teen complained to the Medical Council.

Mr Flynn was a consultant surgeon in Portiuncula from 1978 until December 2005, and has continued as a locum since then.

In a letter received by the council last June, Mr Flynn claimed that getting involved in legal cases disrupted his medical practice at the hospital. “I found that I could not run a proper surgical practice by wasting my time attending cases that were either settled and could have been settled without my attendance at court or else deferred to another day,” he said.

Mr Flynn said he also felt that medico-legal cases were an opportunity for the legal and medical profession to generate income for both sides.

His solicitor, Vincent Shields, said when there were just two consultant posts, Mr Flynn had found it impossible to run the hospital in an efficient manner in circumstances where he was being subpoenaed to court when he furnished a report.

Mr Flynn said that since his official retirement, the Health Service Executive provided a third post after he threatened to withdraw cover on a locum basis.

“I have run an extremely efficient practice at Portiuncula Hospital giving patients a date for their attendance for surgery at the time of their attendance in out-patients. This practice continues despite many attempts to have a waiting list introduced, which I regard as inefficient.”

Mr Flynn said he also introduced the first day-care centre in the country.

The surgeon was previously censured by the council in 1998 for failing to supply a medical report in another case, also involving a road traffic crash victim.

Lawyers for the boy withdrew their complaint against Mr Flynn after they received his report and he agreed to make a contribution to charity.

Despite this, the council decided to proceed with the fitness to practice inquiry, during which Mr Flynn admitted the allegations of professional misconduct.

Chairman Dr Richard Brennan said the doctor’s consent to censure by the Medical Council for his conduct would be recorded in his registration which was, in effect, agreement that his conduct had seriously fallen short of an acceptable standard expected of a doctor.

Mr Flynn gave the undertakings under oath after being requested to do so by the council’s solicitor, JP McDowell.