Symphysiotomy survivors reject report findings

The author of an ongoing report into symphysiotomy has said it is “very disappointing” that a group representing survivors of the procedure has opted not to take part in a consultation process.

Survivors of Symphysiotomy held an extraordinary general meeting in Dublin yesterday to discuss the first phase of the Walsh Report which is compiled by Professor Oonagh Walsh of University College Cork.

SOS claims to be the largest support group for survivors of symphysiotomy.

It has rejected the initial findings of the government- commissioned report into the practice in which the pelvis was broken as part of the childbirth process, and demanded victims be allowed to launch legal suits.

Some 150 survivors of the procedure, or their families, were in attendance and in a vote repudiated “in their totality all of the key findings of the Walsh Report”.

In a second resolution, SOS urged Health Minister Dr James Reilly to abandon all further consideration of the consultation process and back the call of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice for Justice Minister Alan Shatter to set aside the statute of limitations.

SOS also wishes to conduct its “own consultation process”.

There was also criticism of Ms Walsh’s non-attendance at the egm after she had been invited. She said was “very anxious” to meet survivors but since members of the other two representative organisations, SOS Ltd and Patient Focus were not invited, she had decided to follow suit.

Marie O’Connor, SOS chairperson, said a central weakness was the report’s failure to make the case that this “high risk, experimental surgery” was safer than caesarian section.

Historian Dr Jacqueline Morrissey said: “It does seem to me completely incomprehensible that they have ignored the evidence of the people here.”

But Ms Walsh said the first phase of the report — based on public sources and medical literature — was “not a defence of the procedure” and that the process had become “polarised”.

She said people could engage in the consultation process by attending planned meetings, or through written feedback to [e-mail]