Irishhealth.com
February 1, 2002

Council wants power to hold public hearings
by Fergal Bowers

The Medical Council, which polices the behaviour of doctors, has said that it would like to have the absolute power to hold inquiries in public. Currently, as the law stands, an inquiry can only be held in public if the doctor agrees to this. As a result, no Fitness to Practise Committee inquiry has been held in public.

New legislation on how doctors are regulated has also been promised by successive Health Ministers since 1990 and it has been the subject of ongoing negotiations between the Council and the Department of Health. The Council has repeatedly expressed frustration at the delay in updating the 1978 Medical Practitioners Act, the relevant legislation for this area.

The Council has also this week accused the Department of privately saying it wants to introduce changes on ensuring that doctors are competent but publicly doing little or nothing.

Speaking to irishhealth.com, Council president, Prof Gerard Bury said he personally believed that patients were be more likely to take part in an inquiry if it was in private and offered anonymity.

His comments follow the outcome of the high-profile inquiry into Dr Moira Woods. Individualised reports of that inquiry are to be given to each of the five families in the case 'on a private and confidential basis' within days, Prof Bury said.

While the Council may yet publish the report of the inquiry, he added that the matter had not been concluded yet. Dr Woods can still appeal to the High Court and the Council has to go to the court within 21 days to confirm the finding of misconduct. A previous High Court ruling gave the Council the power to publish the report of the inquiry - at the conclusion of the proceedings.

The cost of the 43 day inquiry has been put at around   950,000 but all of the bills are not in yet. The delay in concluding the Woods inquiry has been put down to the complexity of the cases.

Meanwhile, a number of years ago, the Medical Council proposed a new 'competence assurance' system for doctors, to make sure that they are keeping up to date with modern treatments and patients are safe.

"We have yet to see a written word on competence assurance to emanate from the Department of Health. There is no clear cut commitment from the political and departmental area on this", Prof Bury said


Your View:

Anonymous
February 3, 2002 20:03
Doctors should agree to public hearings only when other professionals agree to this. When are doctors to find time to engage in the activities to ensure they pass "competance assurance " guidelines. Schools close for 1-2 days regularly for curricular planning and in service training for teachers despite the long holidays. It is time for regular GPs to speak up on this as most work in excess of 70 hours per week as it is. How much more of life is to be consumed by medicine ?