. . . and the man who commissioned them
Dr Bernard Stuart
BACKGROUND:Dr Stuart is a consultant obstetrician/gynaecologist at the Coombe Women's Hospital. He trained in Ireland and the UK before being appointed as a consultant in 1984. Dr Stuart runs the obstetric ultrasound service at the Coombe and is a lecturer at UCD.
INVOLVEMENT:He told the Medical Council he was asked to carry out a review of Dr Neary's practice on behalf of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) by a colleague, Prof Walter Prendiville. He and Prof Prendiville concluded there was "no evidence of questionable clinical judgment, poor operative ability or faulty decision-making . . . we find that Dr Neary, in the exercise of his clinical judgement, has under difficult circumstances probably saved the lives of several mothers".
FINDING:The Medical Council found him guilty of professional misconduct earlier this month following an investigation late last year by its Fitness to Practice Committee.
Prof Walter Prendiville
BACKGROUND:Prof Prendiville is a consultant obstetrician/ gynaecologist at the Coombe Women's Hospital and is chairman of the department of gynaecology at Tallaght hospital. Aged 57, and a graduate of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Prof Prendiville trained in Dublin, the UK and Australia before being appointed to his current post in 1991.
INVOLVEMENT:He told the Medical Council that he was asked by Finbarr Fitzpatrick of the IHCA to prepare a report on Dr Neary's practice. He said that when asked to identify someone else who could produce such a report, he suggested Dr Stuart as he was perceived as honest and fair minded.
FINDING:The Medical Council found Prof Prendiville guilty of professional misconduct earlier this month following an investigation late last year by its Fitness to Practice Committee.
Dr John Murphy
BACKGROUND:Dr John Murphy is a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist attached to the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, and a consultant gynaecologist at St Vincent's University Hospital. He is currently president of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. Dr Murphy is a past vice-president of the IHCA. He was editor of the Irish Journal of Medical Science for about a decade.
INVOLVEMENT:Asked by Mr Fitzpatrick to carry out a report into the rate of Caesarean hysterectomies carried out by Dr Neary, he concluded: "It would be wrong to put restrictions on his practice and it is my view that the mothers of the [ north eastern health board] are fortunate in having the service of such an experienced and caring obstetrician."
FINDING:The Medical Council found Prof Prendiville guilty of professional misconduct earlier this month following an investigation late last year by its Fitness to Practice Committee.
Finbarr Fitzpatrick
BACKGROUND:Finbarr Fitzpatrick is the secretary general of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA). A teacher by profession, he was previously the general secretary of Fine Gael.
INVOLVEMENT:He asked three obstetricians to carry out a review of the practice of Dr Neary, who was a member of the IHCA. Mr Fitzpatrick told the Medical Council hearing that the obstetricians' reports "were at the disposal of solicitors, and it would be their call at the end of the day as to whether they would be used in any threatened litigation".
The solicitor for one of the obstetricians, Dr John Murphy, told a Medical Council hearing that Dr Murphy was of the opinion that Dr Neary had a low threshold for peripartum hysterectomies and "extracted an undertaking" from him that he would not perform any more of them. "Of course that could not be put in the report because . . . the ground would have been taken from underneath Finbarr Fitzpatrick and the IHCA."