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The Irish Medical Council has become a comedy-factory
A recent process held at the IMC against a doctor had been so comical that it could be a very good scenario for any comedy.
The comic story started when
Lucia Dowd from Lucan in Dublin phoned her cousin
Joe Duffy, the reporter of the Liveline RTE 1, during his live radio program.
Lucia Dowd told the story of her surgical procedure that was carried out abroad by a famous surgeon. She started with telling her medical history in details prior to the procedure.
Lucia Dowd’s live performance on the radio can be downloaded at the bottom of the page.
'I’d battled for years with my weight. I had a complaint on my back. I suffered of my tummy, I had been on Nexium. I had gallstones. I suffered of arthritis as well.'
'I had my procedure done abroad. I had my aftercare with clinic called Weight Loss Surgery in Dublin. There was a lovely lady who took care of me.'
A few days after her live performance on the radio Lucia Dowd sent to the Medical Council her complaint against the foreign doctor who assisted her in getting her procedure done abroad on her own request, but did not take part in the treatment process.
The only 'sin' of the doctor was that Lucia Dowd did not like his look
'He is a small man His look - nothing like a doctor He is a disgusting figure of a person The Medical Council must very least strike him from the register.'
Lucia Dowd’s live performance on the radio can be downloaded at the bottom of the page.
People’s wishes are commands to the Medical Council
Let us put here that the doctor mentioned is Anaesthetist by speciality (puts people into sleep during the surgical procedures ).
The Medical Council first asked the doctor to comment on Lucia Dowd’s complaint. The doctor replied the following:
'I took no part in any of Lucia Dowd’s treatments as a doctor. There has never been signed any contract or done any payment to me to do any care to Lucia Dowd. I just assisted her in getting her procedure done abroad on her own request'.
As the information was true, the Medical Council needed to create any reason that would make them able to complete Lucia Dowd’s very determined wish
In the first instance the Medical Council forwarded the complaint to the Fitness to Practise (FTP) Committee. However, in the beginning there were no allegations against the doctor
This means, that first the Medical Council decided that the doctor is 'guilty'. Then the Medical Council started to find 'sins' to the 'guilt'
As none at the Medical Council and the FTP Committee had any medical education, consequently, they needed to find an 'expert'.
And very soon they found him (of course, for good money ). It was
Donal O’Shea from St Vincent's University Hospital - 'The Judas'. Guess his speciality. Anaesthetist? No... Surgeon? No...
Donal O’Shea is Endocrinologist
You do not need to have any knowledge in medicine to understand how competent he was in regarding the case
After two months of thinking Donal O’Shea, finally, created the following allegations against the doctor mentioned:
- failure in providing Psychological review to Lucia Dowd prior to her procedure (this allegation is ridiculous as our doctor is Anaesthetist and has no relation to Psychology !?
)
- failure in providing aftercare to Lucia Dowd ( however, the aftercare in fact was performed at a Dublin based clinic !? )
The (made-up) allegations then were served by
Caroline Spillane, the Chief Executive Officer of the Medical Council (non-medical), to the Fitness to Practise Committee.
The FTP Committee then prepared a Hearing of the case.
To make the process of the Hearing more spectacular the Medical Council invited the representatives of all kinds of the media (TV, radio, newspapers) to be present on it
The official members of the Hearing were:
Deirdre Madden (chair) – non-medical
Catherine Early– non-medical
Brendan Healy– non-medical
Seamus Woulfe S.C. – non-medical
Patrick Leonard B.L. – non-medical
After presentation of the 'allegations' the following questions were put to the 'expert':
Catherine Early: 'Do you think the failure to provide Psychological review amounts to a professional misconduct and a poor professional performance?'
Donal O’Shea: 'Yes, I would fully agree with that'
Catherine Early: 'Do you think the failure to provide aftercare amounts to a professional misconduct and a poor professional performance?'
Donal O’Shea: 'Yes, I think so'
Decision of the FTP Committee at the end of the Hearing:
'The doctor is guilty of professional misconduct and poor professional performance'.
The decision is ridiculous as there was no conduct or performance from the doctor
The same and the next days the TV, the radio stations and the newspapers announced to the country:
Irish Independent: 'Doctor guilty of botched care'
Irish Examiner: 'Anaesthetist failed to provide a psychological review'
RTE TV: 'Anaesthetist found to have not provided the patient with a psychological counselling'
Herald: 'Doc’ ignored aftercare'
Two months later, John Sidebottom, the Senior Executive Officer of the Medical Council, announced the verdict:
'The Medical Council decided to invoke its powers and the doctor’s registration be cancelled. The reason for the Council’s decision is the seriousness of the findings of professional misconduct and poor professional performance'.
Finally,
Nicholas Kearns, the President of the High Court automatically confirmed the decision of the Medical Council without having any look inside the case
The request of Lucia Dowd to 'very least' strike the doctor from the register was successfully completed. Well done! All congratulations to the Medical Council and its panders
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Funny story, isn’t it?
However, this story is a real tragedy, in fact
The tragedy of this 'comedy' is in that the case happened in the Republic of Ireland – in the country that is declared as democratic and state law one
The professional career of the doctor has easily been crossed (in Ireland) just by simple ignoring of the facts and using made-up stories and allegations
This was the only profession he possessed. He studied 6 years at the University. Then he had honestly worked as Anaesthetist for 19 years and had reached the grade of Consultant. He has exclusively had only good and excellent references from his colleagues and patients.
Now he has to start his life from the beginning
But who cares with this? Nobody... For at least, nobody in the Catholic Ireland...
Normally, in any country (except Ireland!) the highest punishment for doctors, in non-criminal cases, is suspending them from practising on a period of a few months when they are found guilty of professional misconduct. Striking doctor from the registry is equal with leaving him without diploma and all grades obtained, in another words - leaving him without his profession.
Fortunately, our doctor is foreigner. And, fortunately, there is no other country in the world with such a silly law system as Ireland has.
So, the doctor has been survived this stupid incident Lucky end
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Some additional information to the readers of this article:
According to the Irish Medical Council’s statistics, just in the 2011 they struck off the register 8 doctors. Each of them was of foreign origin (smells like discrimination
).
In the next years the Medical Council plans to increase this number, thus to 'improve' their annual statistics
Very sad perspective
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