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This page last updated June 13 2004
2003-0907 - Sunday
Tribune - New law to speed up medical complaints
new June 13 2004
by Martin Wall -
Traditionally in Ireland, doctors, like members of the other respected
professions, regulated themselves. And for years in cases where the medical
profession has investigated and disciplined its own, there have been
complaints from the public that the process was excessively legalistic,
unnecessarily secretive and, above all, far too slow. The families who had
children removed from them after what they maintained were false allegations
of child abuse had to wait ten years before their complaint against Dr Moira
Woods, former head of the paediatric sexual assault unit at the Rotunda
Hospital, was brought to a conclusion
2003-0803 -
Sunday Tribune - Fallout will precipitate radical shake-up
new June 13 2004
by Martin Wall -
Fallout from Neary case will force government to begin a radical shake up of
the profession, something it has been promising to do for a decade. ….The women whose wombs and ovaries were
removed by Neary were not the first group to complain at how long the medical
council process took. The families who made complaints against the prominent
doctor and social campaigner Moira Woods over allegations that they had been
falsely accused of child abuse claimed that it took 10 years for their cases
to be processed by the council. Woods was found guilty of professional
misconduct last year
2003-0326 - The Mirror -
Abused kids in 3-month wait to see Docs
new June 13 2004
by Jenny McQuaile
- Sexually abused children have to wait up to three months to be assessed, a
leading Irish doctor claimed yesterday. ….And since Dr Moira Woods, former
Head of the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit at Rotunda Hospital, was found
guilty of professional misconduct last year, doctors have become very
cautious of making positive diagnoses
2003-0325 - Irish Times
- The abused children left at risk by a system in crisis
new June 13 2004
Since Dr Moira
Woods was found guilty of professional misconduct in January last year,
following a complaint to the Medical Council in relation to her management at
the Rotunda Hospital of alleged cases of child sexual abuse in five families
in the 1980s, doctors have become very cautious about making definite
diagnoses, she says.
2003-0303
- Sunday Independent - Medical Council set to publish Woods report
by Fergal Bowers - The Irish Medical Council is to publish the report of its
inquiry into Dr Moira Woods, the former head of the Rotunda Hospital sexual
assault treatment unit, found guilty of professional misconduct. This follows
legal action by one of the five families involved and a High Court hearing
scheduled for tomorrow
2003-0125
- Richard Webster Net -
Richard Webster - The Irish Medical Council last year examined
numerous complaints that Dr Woods had wrongly diagnosed sexual abuse. In a
number of these cases children had been removed from their parents as a
result. Although the Medical Council upheld many of these complaints and
found Dr Woods guilty of professional misconduct, one of the supposed
'sanctions' it imposed on her was that she should in future engage in child
protection work only as part of an expert multi-disciplinary team. In a fierce
article written at the time, Irish Times columnist John Waters argued that
this should have been happening anyway and that 'It is utterly
incomprehensible to the layperson that investigations into allegations as
serious as child sex abuse can be carried out by a single individual whose
word becomes holy writ.'
2003-0111
- Irish Times - Master of Rotunda defends sex assault unit
by Carol Coulter - 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.
2003-0108
- Irish Examiner - Parents cleared of abuse reject Woods comments
by Michael O’ Farrell - Parents accused of child abuse by Moira Woods
yesterday reacted angrily to comments made by the former child sexual abuse
expert. Dr Woods was found guilty last January of 13 counts of professional
misconduct by the Fitness to Practice Committee of the Medical Council in
cases involving false accusations of sexual abuse against the parents of
three families.Dr Woods was cleared of any wrongdoing in the cases of two
other families. Yesterday, Dr Woods, who now lives in Italy, broke a year's silence on
the issue by saying doctors were living in fear of reporting child abuse.
2003-0107 - Irish Times -
Doctors fear child abuse cases - Woods
new June 13 2004
by Kitty Holland
- A climate of fear has been created among professionals working with
sexually abused children, a former director of the Sexual Abuse Treatment
Unit in Dublin has said. Dr Moira Woods, who was found guilty of professional
misconduct by the Medical Council in January last year, says the inquiry into
her has increased "fear among professionals of committing themselves to
any statement on child abuse - physical, emotional or sexual".
2003-0107 - Moira Woods -
Statement
The Medical Council has seen fit, one year on, to issue a report further
commenting on the case brought against me. This is apparently because the
Council felt it should spread blame, in a sense, or at least issue an
admonishment that "lessons can be learned from the wide range of
governance issues which appear not to have been addressed" by the
establishment of the SATU in the Rotunda
Hospital. …………However, I fully reject the
committee's report and I stand my judgments in the cases considered in the
inquiry.
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