File sent to DPP on missing records of Neary patients

A file has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in relation to missing medical files of former patients of …

A file has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in relation to missing medical files of former patients of disgraced obstetrician/gynaecologist Dr Michael Neary.

He was struck off the medical register in September 2003.

The files are alleged to have gone missing from Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, where he worked from 1974 until 1992.

They relate to 38 patients and the investigation was carried out by Drogheda gardaí.

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The investigation resulted in a file being prepared for the DPP and yesterday Supt Fergus Doggitt confirmed that the file has been completed and was forwarded to the DPP in recent days.

The Medical Council also investigated Dr Neary and its Fitness to Practise Committee found him guilty of professional misconduct and struck him off the medical register nearly two years ago.

According to figures from the Department of Health and Children, there were 334 Caesarean hysterectomies carried out in the Lourdes Hospital between 1950 and 1983, which was over ten a year.

In the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin 148 were carried out between 1905 and 1976 which was approximately two a year.

Some, but not all, of the files that gardaí in Drogheda focused on related to Caesarean hysterectomies. A report from the statutory inquiry into his practices is expected to report to the Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney, in the coming days.