Moral Panic - Child
Sexual Abuse |
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Dr Rois
n Healy, accident and emergency consultant at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick
Children, in Crumlin, proposed a motion "that
the IMO request the Medical Council to actively promote the reputation of the
profession by informing the public of the advances, limitations and risk of
current medical knowledge and practice, thus encouraging the development of
an equal partnership of trust and understanding between patient and
doctor". Dr Healy said the impetus for the
motion came from the Dr Woods case. With others working "in the
area of child abuse, I share a deep sense of disquiet both at the Medical
Council process and the effect of its judgment on practitioners' work",
she said. Noting that the Medical Council's
Fitness to Practise Committee decision in the Dr Woods case was not
unanimous, Dr Healy defined professional misconduct as "conduct which
doctors of experience, competence and good repute . . . consider disgraceful
or dishonest". Later, the State's contingency
plans in the event of a bio-terrorism threat were outlined at a special
scientific session. Dr Darina
Flanagan, director of the National Disease Surveillance Centre, said that
ongoing surveillance was most important. "It is essential that public health
specialists are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week if there is to be
early recognition and effective management of an attack." Antibiotics, anti-viral agents and
vaccines against the six most likely biological agents are being stockpiled.
Dr O'Flanagan noted that the Republic was
especially fortunate to have sourced 600,000 doses of smallpox vaccine at a time
when there was intensive competition for a limited worldwide supply. The Department
of Health's Expert Committee had designated particular hospitals and quarantine
sites for use in the event of an attack, she said. The preparation of information
material for professionals and the public was also well advanced. Dr Kirsty
Murray of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in She described a "Health Alert
Network" which has been established in the Alison O'Connor, Political
Reporter with The Irish Times, discussed the role that the media can play in
effectively communicating how best to handle a bio-terrorism attack. "If
any credible advice is to be given to people about (an attack), it must be
full and accurate," she said. The agm
supported a call for the setting up of a Men's Health Council, similar to the
statutory body for women. Proposing the motion, Dr Declan Bedford, a public
health specialist with the North Eastern Health Board, noted that male life
expectancy in the Republic was more than five years less than that of women. |