THE MEDICAL Council has said it will, if required, provide gardaí and the DPP with copies of all documentation in relation to its fitness to practise inquiry into the former Drogheda surgeon Michael Shine.
Mr Shine was struck off the medical register in November after being found guilty of professional misconduct over inappropriate behaviour towards three male patients while working at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda.
The Medical Council had received complaints from nine patients and upheld three of them.
In a statement yesterday it revealed details of why he had been found guilty of professional misconduct in those three cases.
It said he had abused his professional position by making sexual advances at these patients; by making indecent suggestions and/or behaving indecently to each of them; by assaulting/indecently assaulting them; undertaking inappropriate and/or improper medical examinations and/or treatments of each of them; failing to treat each of them with due dignity and respect; breaching the trust inherent in the doctor/patient relationship; and bringing the medical profession into disrepute.
The Medical Council pointed out that the DPP had decided not to prosecute Mr Shine in respect of the complaints made by two of the three patients whose complaints it had itself upheld.
“If required the council will provide to gardaí or the Director of Public Prosecutions copies of any transcripts or reports,” it added.
One of the nine patients who had complained to the Medical Council about Mr Shine said he believed the council should have automatically handed over its files in relation to the former doctor.
“Everything about this case just annoys me so much,” he said.
Mr Shine worked at the Drogheda hospital from 1964 until 1995, when he retired on a full pension following complaints in relation to the alleged sexual assault and indecent assault of young male patients. A Garda inquiry followed and he was subsequently charged. However he was acquitted on all indecent assault charges in 2003.