The Sexual Assault Treatment Unit in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, is operating in a highly supervised and well-managed way, according to the Master of the hospital, Dr Michael Geary.
This follows a warning from the Medical Council, in a statement on the Dr Moira Woods case last month, that the problems identified with the SATU during that case could recur today.
Set up in 1985 to treat adult victims of sexual assault, the unit is continuing this work today. However, from shortly after its inception until 1988, the unit was inundated with demands for assessment and treatment of child sexual abuse victims.
Its then director, Dr Moira Woods, was the subject of a 55 complaints to the Medical Council in 1992, and after protracted legal proceedings and hearings, 13 of them were upheld last year.
On December 13th, the Medical Council issued a statement on the matter, in which it said: "Where management structures appear not to have fully played their part, it is essential that a distinction be drawn between the responsibilities of individual doctors and the responsibilities of the agencies for which they work." It added: "It is clear that a range of clinical governance issues have not been addressed in this case ... if a doctor works in an environment which is underfunded, poorly staffed, without relevant expertise and not under the management of a proper supervisory body, then responsibility for incidents of patient harm should be shared by all involved.
"The problems identified in SATU have the potential to recur."
In his first response to this statement, Dr Geary said he was taken aback by the statement, and stressed the SATU operates today under a sophisticated level of clinical management.
"At the time it was the first unit of its kind in the country. It was a new service designed to look after adults," he said yesterday. "There was a good management structure in place and people were encouraged to go on training courses. But clinical governance was less developed then than it is today.
"The Rotunda agreed to set up the unit in the mid-1980s at a time of severe health cutbacks. There was clearly a need to deal with a great number of child cases. The Rotunda wanted more help, because we could not admit children here. There were discussions with other hospital managements and the Department [of health], and the children's hospitals came on board in 1988. But we had to deal with the situation before they did ... as soon as physically possible, the children's sexual assault unit was moved."