One of the two surgeons controversially suspended from Cavan General Hospital over a year ago has now lodged a High Court claim for substantial damages. Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent, reports.
Mr William Joyce has lodged a claim for both general and special damages. This follows earlier proceedings in July during which he secured a High Court injunction restraining a ministerial-appointed committee from resuming its inquiry into his suspension.
The inquiry had at that point sat for 41 days but Mr Joyce complained that its chairman, Mr Andrew Bradley SC, had "smelt of alcohol" during several committee hearings and was missing without explanation for three days.
While finding that Mr Joyce had not suffered any prejudice from his complaints about Mr Bradley, Mr Justice O'Neill said in the High Court in July he was satisfied there had, justifiably, been a complete erosion of Mr Joyce's confidence in the capacity of the chairman to bring the proceedings of the committee "to a competent and thus a fair conclusion".
Mr Joyce had been suspended without pay for almost a year at that stage which he said "must be having a grossly detrimental effect on his livelihood and on his professional and personal reputation and must be a source of the utmost hardship to him and his family".
Mr Joyce is now understood to be seeking damages for loss of earnings, loss of reputation, and career loss, due to what he will allege was the failure of the ministerial committee to follow fair procedures and the length it took to establish a committee in the first place. He is also seeking to have his suspension lifted.
The action is being taken against the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, who set up the committee of inquiry, the members of the committee including its chairman, Mr Bradley, Ireland and the Attorney General.
When a consultant is suspended it is procedure to set up a ministerial inquiry under the 1970 Health Act. Mr Martin was asked to do so by the North Eastern Health Board (NEHB)when it suspended Mr Joyce in August 2003.
However, the process was beset by difficulties from the outset. An inquiry was set up in September 2003, which had to be disbanded because of the withdrawal of the chairman and one of the consultant representatives. A second committee was appointed in October 2003. This was disbanded in December 2003 because of a perceived conflict of interest of one of the consultant representatives. Weeks passed before the inquiry chaired by Mr Bradley was constituted in February 2004. The transcript of this latter inquiry, which was held in camera, may be used in Mr Joyce's damages action.
Mr Joyce and another surgeon at Cavan hospital, Mr Pawan Rajpal, were suspended over what have been referred to as "interpersonal difficulties".
Mr Rajpal has already successfully argued in the High Court that the NEHB did not adhere to fair procedures when it sought the establishment of the ministerial committee to inquire into matters leading to his suspension. The High Court held that the decision to suspend him was valid at the time, however. Mr Rajpal is now appealing this decision to the Supreme Court.
Since the suspension of both surgeons, controversy has surrounded the level of care being provided by the surgery department at Cavan hospital and local GPs have complained about an absence of continuity of care for patients. The Garda has sent a file to the DPP after investigating the circumstances of the death in February of nine-year-old Frances Sheridan, three weeks after an appendix operation at the hospital. A post-mortem found she had died from complications arising from recent surgery.