Health boards and hospitals cannot be told without the permission of the High Court that a doctor has been suspended from the medical register, it emerged last night.
A report into the case of Dr John Harding-Price, a psychiatrist employed in Irish hospitals in 2000 while under suspension in Britain, found that the Medical Council here was legally barred from telling his emp-loyers about the suspension.
The Minister for Health and Children said last night that he was taking steps to ensure that in future he will be told if a doctor is suspended.
However, Mr Brian Lea, the registrar of the Medical Council, said that since last year the High Court has given it permission on a number of occasions to inform the Minister that a doctor was suspended pending a fitness to practise inquiry.
Dr Harding-Price was empl-oyed as a locum psychiatrist at St Canice's Hospital in Kilkenny and St Luke's Hospital in Clonmel between April and November 2000 while he was suspended by the General Medical Council in the UK. He was struck off the register in Britain last year, following complaints by three female patients, and he is the subject of an inquiry by the Fitness to Practise Committee of the Medical Council here.
Following media reports about the Harding-Price case in December 2000, the South-Eastern Health Board received four complaints, three of them from patients. These complaints did not allege wrongdoing on the part of Dr Harding-Price, but instead expressed concerns of a general nature, according to the report.
The health board is now investigating a new complaint against the psychiatrist.
The report shows that the Medical Council knew thr-oughout the period Dr Harding-Price was employed by the South-Eastern Health Board that he was suspended in Britain. However, it was legally barred from informing the Minister for Health and Children or an employer of this.
An attempt by the Medical Council to have Dr Harding-Price suspended here was dismissed by the High Court in August 2000 because the application was based on complaints made in the UK.
In January 2001, when Dr Harding-Price had been struck off in the UK, the High Court gave the Medical Council a suspension order pending an inquiry. It refused to extend the suspension in August 2001 and returned Dr Harding-Price to the register of medical practitioners. It renewed the suspension in December 2001 after the UK Privy Council rejected his appeal.
The report published yesterday was written for the Minister by Ms Maureen Lynott, a management consultant in the health area.
In her report, Ms Lynott pointed out that, in the aftermath of the Harding-Price case, the South-Eastern Health Board now checks the registers in the other countries in which a doctor has worked. She said that this practice should be adopted by all health employers.
The South-Eastern Health Board welcomed the report, which said that it and the Medical Council had discharged their obligations in a "diligent" manner.
Ms Lynott's report can be downloaded from the website of the Department of Health and Children - http://www.doh.ie