Consultant faces fitness to practise inquiry

A CONSULTANT obstetrician and gynaecologist is facing a Medical Council fitness to practise inquiry over the care he gave to a young woman who died from cancer two years ago.

Dr Etop Akpan, who qualified in Nigeria in 1984 and works at Our Lady Of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, is facing 38 allegations of professional misconduct and/or poor professional performance.

Sharon McEneaney from Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, was 29 in October 2007 when she began to complain of severe abdominal pain.

Ms McEneaney, the eldest of five children and a manager in a creche in Dublin, had to wait nine months before tests conducted at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital revealed she had cancer.

Immediately after the cancer diagnosis was made in July 2008, Ms McEneaney was referred to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin for treatment. She died in April 2009.

The inquiry heard that Ms McEneaney had attended Our Lady of Lourdes between 2004 and 2005 when a genetic condition called neurofibromatosis that can cause tumours to grow on nerve tissue was diagnosed.

She attended the emergency department on three occasions between October and November 2007 and, following a series of tests, a ruptured ovarian cyst was suspected.

When Ms McEneaney saw Dr Akpan on November 10, 2007, he decided she should be admitted for surgery within one or two weeks. Six weeks passed before she was admitted.

Exploratory laparoscopic surgery performed on December 20 revealed a large abdominal mass on the woman’s left side. Another ultrasound at the hospital on April 3, 2008, uncovered a large pelvic mass.

Dr Shane Corr, a Monaghan GP, wrote to Dr Akpan on May 26, 2008, asking for a follow-up management plan for Ms McEneaney “as she remain-ed totally in the dark” about her condition.

When Dr Akpan asked her to attend the hospital’s outpatient department, her family urged former Fianna Fáil TD, Dr Rory O’Hanlon to intervene.

A biopsy conducted at Our Lady of Lourdes on July 14 revealed a malignant tumour.

Ms McEneaney’s sister, Tanya, complained to the Medical Council in relation to Dr Akpan in September last year.

The inquiry was told a separate investigation of Ms McEneaney’s care at the hospital was carried out by the HSE.

Eighteen witnesses have been called to give evidence during the inquiry.

Dr Corr, the first witness to appear before the inquiry, said he complained to the hospital that patients had to be repeatedly sent to the hospital before they got appropriate treatment

The inquiry continues.