Patient criticises decision to clear doctor of poor performance

A Galway woman who was sterilised by a doctor without her consent has criticised the Medical Council after a disciplinary hearing cleared him of poor professional performance.

Lorna McKeogh, a sales executive from Mountbellew, accused the council of failing to back the rights of patients by preventing doctors acting without the consent of their patients.

“You see the Medical Council as being there for the public and there to defend you, but that hasn’t been the case for us,” she said.

Ms McKeogh was responding to the finding of the council's fitness-to-practise committee in relation to a procedure carried out by consultant obstetrician/gynaecologist Declan Egan in 2010.

It found he failed to adhere to the consent she gave by clipping both of her fallopian tubes instead of one, but this did not amount to poor professional performance. Dr Egan claimed this was medically justified.

Ms McKeogh questioned whether the finding was “for the good of the patient”. “If consent is not given, it isn’t okay for a doctor to act of his own accord.”

Her husband Darragh said the couple had been “failed miserably” by the council and were extremely disappointed by the outcome after such a long, drawn-out process.

Private nature

The couple were required to give evidence of a private nature, in issues such as drinking or smoking levels and sperm counts, during the six days of the hearing in public.

“What, in the view of the Medical Council, is serious enough to constitute a failure by a doctor to meet standards of competence, if not the sterilisation of a young, married woman who is anxious to start a family and is undergoing fertility assisted treatment?” asked the couple’s solicitor, Cian O’Carroll.

He accused the council of being reluctant to take on the case from the start.

“The council has shown itself to be an extremely difficult process by which a patient can hold a doctor to account, both because of the length of the process and the extent to which injured parties are exposed to attack.”

Mr O’Carroll also claimed the McKeoghs were denied access to expert reports based on their private medical records “even though we saw trainee lawyers and even transition year students reading these records during this inquiry”.

The council said all information was held in the strictest confidence. Complainants were witnesses to inquiries and cannot be provided with all documents “to protect their impartiality”.

Ms McKeogh, who has settled a civil case against Dr Egan, says it is time for her to “move on”.

Figures published by the council last week show fitness-to-practise hearings are increasingly being held in private.