A RAFT of new members have been appointed to the Medical Council, giving the body which polices the medical profession a lay majority for the first time, writes Eithne DonnellanHealth Correspondent.
The new 25-member council, which has 13 lay members and 12 representatives of the medical profession, will meet for the first time early next month and its actions will be guided by a new Medical Practitioners Act passed by the Oireachtas.
Six of those on the new council were elected by doctors and five were nominated by Minister for Health Mary Harney. The others represent different organisations, including the Health Service Executive. Among those appointed are the well known clinical psychologist and Irish Times HealthPlus columnist, Marie Murray. Also appointed is long-time patient advocate, Margaret Murray.
While the majority of the council's members will be lay people, under the new Medical Practitioners Act the president of the council will have to be a doctor. Among those likely to be in the running for this role is Prof Gerard Bury, a Dublin-based GP elected to the new council by the medical profession. He has served as president of the council before.
The final meeting of the existing medical council takes place next Wednesday, and fitness to practise inquiries into complaints against doctors which are ongoing under the present council will continue until they are completed. The findings of these will then come before the new council.
Announcing the membership of the new council yesterday Ms Harney said it was important for public confidence that members of a profession do not themselves have majority control in the governance of their regulatory body.
The six people elected by the medical profession to the new council include Prof Bury; Prof Anthony Cunningham, consultant anaesthetist at Beaumont Hospital; Dr Anne Clarke of the faculty of Public Health Medicine at UCD; Dr Eamann Breatnach, director of radiology at the Mater Hospital; Dr Pauline Kane, a junior doctor at Beaumont, and Dr John Monaghan, consultant obstetrician at Portiuncula Hospital.
Those appointed by Ms Harney include UCC law lecturer Dr Deirdre Madden; Katharine Bulbulia, chair of the Crisis Pregnancy Agency and a former programme manager to Ms Harney while she was tánaiste; Margaret Murray; Dr Regina Connolly, lecturer in management information systems at DCU, and Dr Damien McLoughlin, director of the academic centre for marketing studies at the UCD Smurfit Graduate School of Business.
Those nominated by the HSE include Brendan Broderick, CEO of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary Services, and Mary Culliton, the HSE's assistant national director of consumer affairs.
Marie Murray was nominated by the Minister for Education, Anne Carrigy was nominated by An Bord Altranais, John Billings was nominated by HIQA, and Daniel O'Hare by the Independent Hospitals Association of Ireland.
Representing the medical training colleges on the new council will be Prof Paul Finucane, head of the University of Limerick medical school, and Prof William Powderly, head of the UCD medical school, while Dr Richard Brennan will represent the ICGP.
Dr Diarmuid O'Donoghue, a consultant at St Vincent's, will represent the RCPI while Frank McManus will represent the RCSI.
The Irish Psychiatric Training Committee will be represented by consultant psychiatrist Prof Kieran Murphy, and the Health and Social Care Professionals Council by Dr John O'Mullane, a UCC lecturer.
The Royal Irish Academy has yet to name a nominee.