Supreme Court finds in favour of surgeon

A surgeon’s “slip of the pen” should not have been the basis for him being subjected to the “extremely threatening ordeal” of a public inquiry by the Medical Council, the Supreme Court has said.

The five-judge court unanimously upheld the High Court’s rejection of a Council inquiry’s finding that distinguished paediatric surgeon Professor Martin Corbally should receive an admonishment over “a once-off error”.

It related to a handwritten description of a tongue tie surgical procedure on a two-year-old girl in 2010 in Crumlin Hospital which led to a finding of poor professional performance (PPP) against the doctor.