http://www.rte.ie/news/2002/0129/doctor.html

RTE News
January 29, 2002

Fitness to practice inquiry into doctor concludes

The Medical Council is continuing to discuss what sanctions to impose on the doctor and social campaigner Dr Moira Woods. The doctors' professional body has found her guilty of professional misconduct for her handling of some cases of alleged child abuse in the 1980s.

The Council's Fitness to Practice committee held an inquiry following complaints by five families in the early '90s, who said they had been wrongly accused of abuse by Dr Woods. The first complaint against Dr Woods was made to the Medical Council in 1993 by a parent who claimed he was wrongly accused of child sex abuse in the 1980s.

Parents in five families subsequently made complaints of professional misconduct. Seventeen children were involved, some of whom were placed in care. As head of the Sexual Assault Unit in the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, Dr Woods had given a medical diagnosis of abuse and gave evidence in some court cases.

The Fitness to Practice Committee of the Medical Council began its hearings in 1999, after lengthy High Court proceedings, which ruled the hearings should be held in private. The High Court said that the report of the Council's findings should be published.

The Committee finalised its inquiry late last year and it is understood to have found Dr Woods guilty of professional misconduct. The Council meeting is due to decide the nature of any censure against the former GP. She can appeal the finding to the High Court.