Judge calls press release 'spin' by Medical Council

A press release from the Medical Council which stated that two consultant obstetricians had been found guilty of professional misconduct over reports opposing the immediate suspension of obstetrician Dr Michael Neary, but failed to say the council had decided to impose no sanction against the doctors, seemed to be "spin of the worst type", a High Court judge has said.

If the council was entitled to go public on a matter where it was exercising a "quasi-judicial" function, it might be expected its press statement would tell "the whole story", Mr Justice Peter Kelly remarked.

Eoin McCullough SC, for the council, said that although the nature of the press release had been raised in the proceedings by the doctors against the Medical Council, it was not an issue in the case and the council had therefore not addressed it in affidavits.

The judge said the omissions in the press release were mentioned as part of general allegations of unfairness on the part of the council. The press statement was "an incomplete account" of what had occurred and that was "not by accident". If it was an accident, it placed the council in a serious position, he added.

The exchanges occurred on the third day of proceedings in which Dr John Murphy and Prof Walter Prendiville are challenging the manner in which the Medical Council decided last February that they were guilty of professional misconduct over their reports concerning the obstetric practice of Dr Neary at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.

Both obstetricians contend there was no evidence on which the council could have based such a finding, and have claimed the council acted unlawfully and unfairly in several respects, including the failure to provide reasons for the findings of professional misconduct.

The proceedings arose after Prof Prendiville, Dr Murphy, and Dr Bernard Stuart, of the Coombe women's hospital, were asked in 1998 by the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association to review files on a number of Dr Neary's patients at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. They later produced reports opposing the suspension of Dr Neary. They say they also secured an undertaking from Dr Neary that he would not perform any more Caesarean hysterectomies without the agreement of another consultant.

Dr Neary was later struck off the medical register arising from him performing unnecessary Caesarean hysterectomies on patients at the hospital.

Last February, the Medical Council upheld recommendations from its Fitness to Practise Committee (FTPC) that the three obstetricians be found guilty of professional misconduct. Although the committee recommended that sanctions be imposed on them, the council decided not to.

Prof Prendiville, South Circular Road, Dublin, was found guilty of one out of 12 allegations before the committee. He was found guilty of professional misconduct relating to the failure to apply the standard of conduct expected by a medical practitioner while compiling his report.

Dr Murphy, of the Blackrock Clinic and a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist with the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, was found guilty of three allegations of professional misconduct. These related to stating that Dr Neary had no case to answer in respect of the cases reviewed and should be allowed to continue working at the hospital without any restrictions on his practice.

Yesterday, Mr McCullough said all sides in the proceedings had behaved with honesty and had done their jobs to the best of their ability at all stages. Prof Prendiville and Dr Murphy were persons of honesty, eminence and distinction in their professions, he said.

The task taken on by Prof Prendiville and Dr Murphy in relation to Dr Neary in 1998 was unenviable and difficult, he said. The council and FTPC also faced a difficult task in attempting to judge doctors of such eminence and distinction.

Mr McCullough said there was no departure from the norm in relation to how the doctors were treated by the FTPC and the council and they had not been singled out. He agreed the report produced by the FTPC in relation to its inquiry into Dr Neary himself ran to 180 pages and that the reports relating to the two doctors were much shorter.

When he said the reports produced were in line with previous reports of inquiries by the FTPC and were not unusual, the judge remarked that did not mean such a practice was right. Counsel agreed it would have been better if the reports in this case had outlined reasons, but he also argued that was not necessary.

Prof Prendiville had been a member of the Medical Council from 2000 to 2004 and neither doctor could say they were surprised at how the council dealt with such situations, Mr McCullough said. The same standard had been applied for some 30 years.

The hearing continues today.