Dáil debates

Wednesday, 8 March 2006

Lourdes Hospital Inquiry: Statements (Resumed).

 

5:00 pm

Photo of Fergus O'DowdFergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

This is an important debate. We are all ad idem in this House in respect of the appalling situation which arose whereby these women and their partners who wanted to have more children will never be able to have them given what happened at the hands of Dr. Neary. No sympathies expressed by us are enough. No money could ever compensate for that cruel and awful loss. I congratulate the women involved who had the courage to campaign and to bring this matter to the attention of politicians, particularly in the north-eastern area. The leader of Patient Focus, Sheila O'Connor, brought this matter to the attention of all political parties and ensured we were fully informed at all stages.

Judge Harding Clark's report is an excellent one in all respects and I fully support the findings therein. A person mentioned specifically for praise in the report is the health board official, Dr. Ambrose McLoughlin, a former deputy chief executive officer. Mary Duff, the nursing officer, and Finbarr Lennon, the medical director of the hospital, were also mentioned. In the face of extreme pressure from consultants in the hospital, they undertook to ensure the matter was fully resolved. They pursued that in a determined and committed way and they suffered gravely. As the report states, they suffered much ignominy and distress as a result of what was said about them but they pursued the matter to ensure the Dr. Neary case was brought to a finality. The truth of the situation is now known to us all. Were it not for their determination, the whitewash of the three professional obstetricians who reviewed some of Dr. Neary's cases and who gave him a clean bill of health for his actions would have stood.

At the core of this debate and what happened was the lack of accountability in the medical professional in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital and within the professional bodies and the fact they did not see fit to tell Dr. Neary that he had erred grievously in his actions. That an English independent consultant examined the facts and found the opposite begs the question as to what will happen in future. How can we trust these professional medical bodies if they can so clearly whitewash the actions of a consultant who is a member of their group?

Also at the heart this issue was the way public and private patients were treated, especially in maternity hospitals. This came out in the report. Often a consultant never visited some of the patients having children but I presume that has changed. It is a practice I find unacceptable. Every patient who delivers a baby in a hospital should be visited by the consultant on duty.

I have three children and live in Drogheda. My wife had an emergency Caesarean section with our first child. When we saw this report, we said how fortunate we were that Dr. Neary was not on duty that night and how unfortunate the women who had the hysterectomies were. No argument or facts support the need for so many Caesarean hysterectomies in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital during those years. The report states quite clearly that on average, a consultant would perform perhaps ten of these operations in a lifetime, but at least ten per year were performed in this case, which was shameful and unacceptable. The report points out that people who worked in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital — it does not name them but mentions the jobs they held — said nothing and this abuse continued.

It is amazing there was no professional review of all the standards operating in the hospital. In her report, Judge Harding Clark makes it clear she is not convinced that this has not happened, or could not happen, elsewhere in the health service. How do we know this has not happened, or is not happening, elsewhere? It is important the Government ensures there is transparency in respect of the bodies which regulate the medical profession. We can no longer assume these professional bodies will act in the best interests of patients when they clearly did not do so when they examined Dr. Neary's nine cases. That is a critical issue. We need to ensure this never happens again.

At the heart of our hospital service must be a transparent and tough regime which reviews how these consultants operate, how they retrain and how we ensure they do so. Every few years, they should be required to undergo an assessment in the hospital and perhaps even a written examination to ensure they are up to date with the best and most progressive knowledge available.

It is an absolute shame that people who knew what was going on did not speak and those reviewing what this man did gave him a clean bill of health. That is the most profound and awful finding of all and which shocks us all. The hospital is, and has always been, a core part of everything which happens in the town of Drogheda. More than 1,800 people work in the hospital which is probably the largest employer in the county. We have a major interest in ensuring the services provided in the hospital are the best.

This day would never have come were it not for the commitment of the midwife who brought this issue to the attention of the health board, its officials and some of the hospital management who insisted on ensuring the truth and all the facts came out, for the campaign of the women involved, and for Patient Focus. I am glad we have had this debate and that there is clarity about what happened.

I am a great admirer of the work the Medical Missionaries of Mary have done for many years in Ireland and abroad. The order is clearly exonerated in this report. The Catholic ethos of the hospital was not found wanting and was shown not to be the reason Dr. Neary carried out the operations. I am happy with that. Views will be expressed about Catholic morality and so on but the report rules out its influence on what happened in the hospital.

We are all agreed that change is required and it is forthcoming. I welcome the report which is a watershed that signals the end of bad medicine, bad hospitals, and a lack of investigation and vigilance into the medical profession. I am pleased the redress scheme has been introduced but it will never compensate the women and their partners for what they have been through.

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