The High Court's decision to overturn a verdict of professional misconduct against two obstetricians is likely to be on the agenda of the Irish Medical Council meeting later this month.
The council must decide whether to appeal the High Court decision to the Supreme Court. The meeting is scheduled for January 16th.
Last month Mr Justice Peter Kelly ruled that the council's findings of professional misconduct against Dr John Murphy and Prof Walter Prendiville were unlawful.
He also ordered the council to pay the costs of the judicial review taken by the two men.
Dr Murphy and Prof Prendiville were two of the three obstetricians who cleared Dr Michael Neary of wrongdoing 10 years ago.
Dr Neary, who worked as a consultant obstetrician at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, was struck off in 2003 for performing unnecessary Caesarean hysterectomies on patients there.
Both Prof Prendiville and Dr Murphy, along with Dr Bernard Stuart, were asked by the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association to review his practice following complaints from women at the hospital.
They looked at nine Caesarean hysterectomies and concluded that no restrictions should be placed on his practice. An obstetrician based in Manchester, who reviewed the same nine cases, expressed major concerns.
Dr Neary was later struck off after he was found guilty of professional misconduct over the unnecessary removal of the wombs of 10 patients.
The Medical Council investigated the three doctors who exonerated Dr Neary and its fitness to practise committee recommended sanctions be imposed on them. On December 19th, Mr Justice Kelly held that the fitness to practise committee failed to give any reasons for its majority decision that the doctors were guilty of professional misconduct and that they were left "absolutely in the dark" as to the basis for those findings.
