Doctors axed to salvage Savita inquiry

The Government removed three Galway consultants from the inquiry into Savita Halappanavar’s death in a desperate attempt to rescue the investigation — but her family insists it still is not enough.

The HSE investigation is in crisis after solicitors for her husband insisted only a fully independent and public inquiry would suffice.

In a desperate scramble to rescue the inquiry yesterday, the Government removed three Galway-based medical staff from the seven-member investigating panel.

Praveen Halappanavar’s solicitor told RTÉ last night this would not be enough to secure his co-operation.

However, the head of the HSE, Tony O’Brien, said the inquiry would proceed even if Mr Halappanavar chose not to become involved. He said the organisation was “absolutely obliged” to investigate Ms Halappanavar’s death and hoped her husband would participate in the inquiry.

He said the independent chair, London-based Prof Sabaratnam Arulkumaran, wanted to speak directly to Mr Halappanavar but attempts to contact him via his solicitor had proved unsuccessful to that point.

The embarrassing Government U-turn on the inquiry panel came less than 24 hours after its composition had been announced.

Following a Cabinet meeting yesterday at which the issue was discussed, Taoiseach Enda Kenny told the Dáil that the three Galway-based staff, Prof John J Morrison, Dr Catherine Fleming, and Dr Brian Harte, would be removed.

Mr Kenny stressed this was not to impugn them in any way, but to ensure the family and the public had confidence in the inquiry.

If people from the hospital were spoken to by the inquiry, it would now only be in the context of them being witnesses, he added.

“The investigation will be utterly independent of the hospital,” Mr Kenny said.

But Mr Halappanavar’s solicitor, Gerard O’Donnell, said his client’s concerns had not just been about the inquiry including staff from the hospital in which his wife had died. Mr Halappanavar had “no faith” in the HSE and wanted an independent public inquiry. “It’s important to remember that he lost his wife while under the care of the HSE.”

He said the inquiry would be powerless without his client’s consent. “They would have to look at her records. And we haven’t given any records, any consent.”

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties backed the calls for an independent inquiry. “Although headed by an external chair, this remains an internal HSE investigation into the conduct of persons employed by the HSE,” it said.

Meanwhile, pro-life activists demanded Prof Arulkumaran be removed because of a paper he co-authored which advocated liberalising abortion in countries with conservative laws.

Separately, the Government has failed to say when it will act on the wider abortion issue.

The Cabinet agreed to publish next week the report of the expert group which examined how the State could give legal clarity to Ireland’s abortion regime. However, the Coalition gave no date as to when it would actually make a decision on the report.