Report: main recommendations

The report of the Inquiry into the high level of peripartum hysterectomies at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital has recommended that the Government should introduce major reforms to the way doctors are audited.

It says the Medical Council should have statutory powers to oblige doctors to engage in continuous medical education and skills assessment.

It maintains that it should be able to oblige obstetricians to engage in continuing professional development and competence appraisal at least every five years.

It should also be able to require obstetricians, pathologists and anaesthetists to submit their practice - including private practice - to annual clinical audit.

It proposes that the Medical Council should be able to impose limitations on practice or to oblige all doctors to attend training on clinical governance.

The report recommends that the Department of Health should establish a new monitoring body for standards in all facilities.

It also proposes that risk management incident reports should be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.

It recommends that the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists should have powers to enforce standards on members.

It says that the HSE should ensure that replacement consultants are recruited at least three months before the retirement date of existing staff.

The report recommends that a lead clinician should be appointed to the hospital in Drogheda with responsibility for budgetary planning and organising clinical audit. There should also be a lead midwifery clinician.

It proposes that infrastructural issues such as the size of the hospital should be addressed, that the hospital manager should be seen as the chief executive and that a medical director should have wide powers to govern medical staff regarding clinical standards.