Dáil debates
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Hospital Procedures.
8:00 pm
John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney, who is unable to attend this evening. I thank Deputy Ó Caoláin for raising this important issue.
Symphysiotomy is a medical intervention that is now very rarely used in Ireland. It is an obstetric procedure and is a matter primarily for the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to advise and lead upon. Accordingly, the Minister for Health and Children has asked the institute to prepare a report for her concerning the practice of symphysiotomy in Ireland. She has asked that the report would provide the institute's assessment of the circumstances in which symphysiotomy was carried out in Irish obstetric units; indicate what protocols or guidance existed over the years to guide professional practice; specify when the practice changed and why it changed at that time in Ireland.
The Minister has asked the institute to have the report completed by the end of April. I understand that the institute has indicated it will examine the practice of symphysiotomy as requested by the Minister and that it is willing to meet with the group representing those who have had the procedure. Symphysiotomy has been superseded for many years by Caesarean section and the Minister is satisfied that current medical practice in this regard is not in need of review.
The Minister is committed to ensuring that the greatest possible support and services are made available to women who continue to suffer the effects of having undergone this procedure. The women concerned continue to receive attention and care through a number of services which have been put in place including the provision of medical cards to all survivors of symphysiotomy patients who requested them; the nomination, since 2003, of a liaison officer for a patients' group comprised of women who underwent a symphysiotomy procedure; the availability of independent clinical advice for former patients by liaison officers who assist in co-ordinating the provision of services to those patients; the organisation of individual pathways of care; and the arrangement of appropriate follow-up, including medical assessment, gynaecology assessment, orthopaedic assessment, counselling, physiotherapy, reflexology, home help, acupuncture, osteopathy and fast-tracked hospital appointments. I understand that to date, 125 women have availed of some or all of the services offered by the HSE. I refer to the refund of medical expenses related to symphysiotomy in respect of medication or private treatments and the establishment of a triple assessment service for patients at Cappagh Hospital, Dublin in January 2005. A support group facilitated by a counsellor was set up in 2004 in Dundalk and Drogheda for women living in the north-east region.
The Minister has been assured by the HSE that it will continue to monitor and oversee the provision of necessary support services for women. In doing so, the HSE is committed to being proactive in seeking out and offering help to women who had symphysiotomies and who may wish to avail of the services offered by the HSE.
Marie O'Connor
Posted on 22 Mar 2010 7:45 pm (Report this comment)
The question that now arises is: is the report on symphysiotomy commissioned by the Minister for Health from the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (IOG) intended to be a whitewash?
Recent revelations about symphysiotomy suggest that the document will, at a minimum, be canonical in nature.
Just as the Catholic Church concealed the sexual abuse of children by the clergy, so the medical authorities continue to cover up the surgical abuse that was symphysiotomy. The hierarchy that has been asked to produce this report by the Minister now stands exposed, however.
That symphysiotomy was performed here for religious reasons has been confirmed by none other than Professor Emeritus Dr Eamon O Dwyer, formerly of University College Hospital Galway.
His statement is totally at variance with the doctrine promulgated by the IOG to date. Their line is that symphysiotomy was the standard treatment in Ireland for difficult births until 1960 and that it was done out of medical necessity.
Dr O Dwyer also reaffirmed another IOG tenet of faith, namely, that symphysiotomy led to excellent results. This is despite testimony from a former patient that, like hundreds of others, she had been left crippled and incontinent by the surgery.
Another article of faith promulgated by the IOG in its 2001 letter to the Chief Medical Officer of Health is that the operation ceased here in 1960. While it has long been known that the surgery continued at the Lourdes until 1983, the admission from the National Maternity Hospital that it persisted there until 1972 casts new light on the doctrinal position adopted by the IOG.
The State, not the medical hierarchy, now needs to explain why this aberrant surgery was allowed to continue in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda until 1983 and how the premier maternity hospital in Ireland could have practised it until 1972, at least.
Moreover, senior civil servants at the Department of Health should be asked why the theological letter penned by the Institute in 2001 was used to frame the report requested by the Minister in the wake of the Prime Time programme. Finally, the Minister herself should be required to explain why she has seen fit to commission a report that can only lead to further erroneous theology on symphysiotomy.
As for the availability pf supports and services, liaison officers have disappeared, while 'fast-tracked hospital appointments' are a myth, just like individual pathways of care. While appropriate medical treatment is often stymied by doctors in denial about this discredited operation, the refund of medical expenses continues to be a battleground. Far from being in receipt of physiotherapy, reflexology, home help, acupuncture and osteopathy, symphysiotomy survivors can expect to pay for their own back surgery, with stair lifts reserved for the dying.
Shame on all concerned.