Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State and his officials to the House. I thank Senator Tuffy for sharing time with me. While I will not go over what has already been said, this report is truly shocking. This week on Vincent Browne's radio programme, there were readings from transcripts of real life cases, which brought the matter home to us all. Yesterday's "Five Seven Live" programme also played some of those excerpts. Obviously, no level of compensation can be given to those victims now to make up for the wrong done not just by Dr. Neary, but by the whole system. The longer I am in this House the more I realise that politicians, for all our faults, are not the worst offenders.

Unfortunately, a golden rule that applies to everyone is "man, protect thyself". That emerges loud and clear in this report too, which concerns cover-up, oversight and people who should have known better but neglected to call a halt. The worrying question for us as legislators is how to ensure that this can never recur. I am disappointed that the Government did not back a joint proposal in the Dáil last night from the Labour Party and Fine Gael, the Whistleblowers Protection Bill 1999. I would have been reassured to some extent if it had been accorded Government co-operation, but that was not the case.

I know that the medical practitioners (amendment) Bill is still being prepared, and we have no definite date for when that will be introduced. Senator Henry has been raising the issue in the House for the last six years. This case highlights the urgency of that legislation, which I hope we will see before the summer recess. It is vital for everyone involved in the medical profession that legislation be enacted without further delay to ensure both their rights and those of patients.

There is a great deal of arrogance in the medical profession. As Senator Glynn and others will know, I have some knowledge of MRSA, which I am glad Senator Tuffy has raised today. It is a case in point, since patients are not being informed of the fact that they have the condition. It is a basic right that if anyone ends up in hospital and tests positive for an ailment, he or she should be informed immediately. I meet many patients and former patients who discover they have had MRSA. Sometimes their families find out after a patient's death. That leads to the need for such groups as Patient Focus and MRSA and Families, which do great work. It is regrettable that we need them regarding the health service, but that is unfortunately the case.

Patients are not being put first, something incredible in an economy such as ours, where one would imagine that a patient would be told everything. Information is the key to success. There is a degree of snobbery in the medical profession in its belief that patients will not understand big words. Thankfully, we are all able to use dictionaries and if we cannot go on the web ourselves, we have family members who can do so. If we are told that we have some condition with a long name, we can look it up and find out what it is.

We must re-emphasise to the medical profession that patients must at all times have information. That clearly did not happen in the case of Lourdes hospital, neither is it occurring with MRSA and certain other issues. My mother was in hospital a few years ago, having lost the use of her leg. If one leg is not fully in action and one is taken for a walk, one must be accompanied by two people, one on each side to offer support. Without that, the danger is that a person will topple over, not only falling but perhaps even pulling the other person down on top of him or her with the result that he or she breaks a hip. My mother fell but, thankfully, did not break her hip.

Having heard of the incident, I asked a nurse in the corridor if only one person had accompanied my mother when she was walking. I was not being aggressive or accusatory, but a junior doctor who happened to be passing stopped. I had not even been talking to him, but he butted into a private conversation, telling me the bare-faced lie that he had witnessed the incident and that my mother had had two people with her.

My mother is not perfect, but neither is she the world's worst, and I believed her rather than him. I was very annoyed but made the mistake of not taking the doctor's name. Unfortunately, when one has a relative in hospital, one is more concerned about his or her welfare, not thinking about such matters. One tends to assume that the medical profession knows best. It was a classic case that proves the culture of cover-up to protect one's colleagues at all costs, even where something is wrong.

Everyone makes mistakes, myself included, and I hope that if I fail on behalf of a constituent, I will be big enough to admit it and attempt to correct the problem. It is vital that the medical profession opens up rather than protects itself. What is really shocking in this report is the fact that three consultant obstetricians backed Dr. Neary in 1998. I understand from "Five Seven Live" yesterday that they have now gone to ground. I was amazed to learn that one individual has been a frequent attender of Oireachtas committee meetings, mainly regarding the abortion referendum. A week on, there has still been no sighting of him, and that is not good enough. We have also witnessed systemic failure by anaesthetists, as Senator Feeney pointed out.

We must ensure that this cannot recur. The Government has handled the matter well thus far, something seen in the appointment of a new chairman to the compensation tribunal. The victims can never be adequately compensated, but I urge it to bring forward the whistleblower legislation and the medical practitioners (amendment) Bill. We must learn from this to move forward.