The Fitness to Practise hearing against Dr Moira Woods finally got under way in the Medical Council yesterday, six years after a complaint against her was first made. It is taking place in private, following a High Court ruling from a year and a half ago. However, the same ruling said the Medical Council could publish a report on its findings.
The complaint was brought by five parents who claim they were wrongly accused of child sex abuse by Dr Woods, resulting in their children being taken into care by the Eastern Health Board. Seventeen children were involved. Dr Woods is strenuously denying the allegations.
Dr Woods developed the Sexual Assault Unit at the Rotunda Hospital in the 1980s and the unit became a factor in the growth of awareness of sexual abuse.
A medical diagnosis is only one of the factors taken into account in assessing whether child sex abuse has taken place. Social work and psychiatric reports are also given, and it is the health board which makes the decision on taking a child into care.
While some of these parents have complained about certain EHB personnel, the focus of their anger has been Dr Woods. However, the case has been held up by legal wrangling.
The parents sought to have the complaint heard in public and the Medical Council decided to break with tradition and accede to their demands. The Eastern Health Board then refused to release documentation relating to the cases, on the grounds that such documents were confidential.
The Medical Council went to the High Court, where Mr Justice Barr ruled that the documents were indeed confidential, but that the EHB could release them to the council, provided that the hearing was in private. He said the council could publish a report of its findings.
At a preliminary hearing last year, the council refused legal representation to the group of parents but said the complainants would have the right to have a legal representative present without the right to be heard or to cross-examine witnesses.
Dr Brendan Healy, chairman of the Fitness to Practise Committee, is presiding over the hearing.