An application by a patient support group to attend a Medical Council fitness to practise hearing into three Dublin consultant obstetricians was turned down yesterday.
The application to be present at the fitness to practice inquiry into the obstetricians, who provided reports in 1998 exonerating the practice of Drogheda obstetrician Dr Michael Neary, was made by three women from Patient Focus.
The organisation represents women who had their wombs unnecessarily removed by Dr Neary, who has since been struck off the medical register.
Sheila O'Connor of Patient Focus said barristers for the obstetricians objected to their application. She said the committee, having heard both sides, decided against allowing them to be present on a number of grounds including the fact that none of them had been patients of the three obstetricians and on grounds of confidentiality.
A formal complaint was made to the Medical Council about the three obstetricians by Patient Focus earlier this year following publication of the Lourdes Hospital Inquiry report, compiled by Judge Maureen Harding Clark.
The obstetricians were not named in Judge Harding Clark's report but it was later established that they were Prof Walter Prendiville, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the Coombe Women's Hospital; Dr John Murphy, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street; and Dr Bernard Stuart of the Coombe Women's Hospital.
The three were asked to conduct a review of the work of Dr Neary after concerns were raised about his high rate of hysterectomies. They reviewed nine cases of Caesarean hysterectomies selected for them by Dr Neary in 1998 and they filed reports after a brief examination of records and found he could continue working.
When interviewed for the Lourdes Hospital inquiry, the obstetricians explained that their limited reports were "prepared on a confidential basis to enable Dr Neary to continue working, pending the outcome of the review of his practice by the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists".
As a result of their reviews, Dr Neary returned to work at the Lourdes Hospital subject to restrictions. But he did not return for long. The then north eastern health board sought the views of Dr Michael Maresh, an obstetrician based in Manchester, and he reviewed the same nine cases and expressed major concerns.