The Irish Times
January 11 2003
Master of Rotunda defends sex assault unit
by Carol Coulter
Legal Affairs Correspondent
The
Sexual Assault Treatment Unit in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, is operating in
a highly supervised and well-managed way, according to the Master of the
hospital, Dr Michael Geary.
This follows a warning from the Medical Council, in a statement on the Dr Moira
Woods case last month, that the problems identified with the SATU during that
case could recur today.
Set up in 1985 to treat adult victims of sexual assault, the unit is continuing
this work today. However, from shortly after its inception until 1988, the unit
was inundated with demands for assessment and treatment of child sexual abuse
victims.
The then director, Dr Moira Woods, was the subject of a 55 complaints to the
Medical Council in 1992, and after protracted legal proceedings and hearings,
13 of them were upheld last year.
On December the 13th, the Medical Council issued a statement on the matter, in
which it said: "Where management structures appear not to have fully
played their part, it is essential that a distinction be drawn between the
responsibilities of individual doctors and the responsibilities of the agencies
for which they work." It added: It is clear that a range of clinical
governance issues have not been addressed in this case.... if a doctor works in
an environment which is underfunded, poorly staffed, without relevant expertise and not under
the management of a proper supervisory body, then responsibility for incidents
of patient harm should be shared by all involved. "The problems identified
in SATU have the potential to recur."
In his first response to this statement, Dr Geary said he was taken aback by
the statement, and stressed the SATU operates today under a sophisticated level
of clinical management. "At the time it was the first unit of its kind in
the country. It was a new service designed to look after adults," he said
yesterday. "There was a good management structure in place and people were
encouraged to go on training courses. But clinical governance was less
developed then than it is today. "The Rotunda agreed to set up the unit in
the mid-1980s at a time of severe health cutbacks. There was clearly a need to
deal with a great number of child cases. The Rotunda wanted more help, because
we could not admit children here. There were discussions with other hospital
managements and the Department of Health, and the children's hospitals came on
board in 1988. But we had to deal with the situation before they did....as soon
as psychically possible, the children's sexual assault
unit was moved."