Prison doctor refused cash for course prior to TB outbreak

Prison authorities refused to pay for a Cloverhill Prison doctor to complete a course in infectious diseases shortly before a tuberculosis outbreak at the facility, it has been claimed.

Dr Mohsin Moola said he was told by a manager that the course was “not relevant” and would not be paid for by the Irish Prison Service. Dr Moola had started the course but did not complete it when he learned it would not be paid for.

He made the allegation at an Employment Appeals Tribunal dealing with claims that the service had unfairly docked his wages by €2,800.

The service says it docked Dr Moola’s wages because he was not working the full hours for which he was contracted.

Dr Moola told his counsel, Ercus Stewart SC, that in 2006 he agreed a verbal contract with the then governor of Cloverhill, Liam Dowling. He said it was agreed he would work two sessions a day and would be on call 24 hours a day and at weekends.

The doctor said they agreed a yearly salary of €120,000 and there was no mention of him having to work a full 39-hour week like other prison doctors. He said he was allowed to leave once he had seen his patients.

He said it was also agreed that he could have a private surgery outside prison. Dr Moola said this was very important as he would be left at a professional disadvantage if he was only treating adult male patients. He said the prison was in “urgent” need of a doctor at the time as the previous senior doctor had resigned with an hour’s notice.

In 2009, Dr Moola enrolled in a dermatology training course in UCD which was paid for by the service. He also enrolled in an infectious diseases training course.

Challenges

Dr Moola said these courses were important because of the specific challenges he faced in Cloverhill, which he compared to an accident and emergency department. Because it was a remand prison, inmates were coming in off the street with no medical histories, he said.

He said Cloverhill was also where illegal immigrants were brought when they were detained at Dublin Airport. These people could be coming from anywhere in the world, he said.

The doctor said the Swine Flu outbreak of 2009 highlighted for him how vulnerable a remand prison could be and he decided to enrol in the infectious diseases course. When he applied for his fees, he said management told him it was “not relevant” and that the service would not pay for it.

Dr Moola said an outbreak of tuberculosis occurred in 2010 and infected 100 people.

Former governor Liam Dowling told Glen Gibbons, for the prison service, that he never agreed to a “bespoke” contract with Dr Moola. He said he had no power to negotiate contracts and he only indicated to the doctor that there was a full-time position which he could apply for.

“He was hired as a full-time doctor and the expectation was he would be there in a full time doctor’s role,” said Mr Dowling.

Dr Moola said the maximum time he could see patients for was 21 hours a week because they could only be brought to his clinic during certain windows when guards were available to escort them. He said there was little point in him working 39 hours when he could not see patients for much of that time.

Mr Dowling said he must have a doctor on site to deal with emergencies regardless of how much face-to-face time they spent with patients.

The current Cloverhill governor, Ronan Maher, gave evidence that the prison had had to hire a locum doctor because Dr Moola would not come in for the full 39 hours.

Contract

He agreed that Dr Moola provided excellent service “when he is on duty” but said that he did not feel he was fulfilling his contract.

There was some confusion in the inquiry when it emerged that Dr Moola was relying on documents he received through Freedom of Information and Data Protection requests. These documents included legal advice the Irish Prison Service (IPS) received from the office of the Attorney General.

Mr Gibbons, for the IPS, said it was highly unusual for legal advice to be disclosed to another litigant. It then emerged the IPS had disclosed the advice to Dr Moola by mistake.

Mr Gibbons submitted the doctor could not rely on it as it remained privileged legal advice. An agreement was later reached between the parties that some of the documents would be removed from the submissions and some would be redacted.

The inquiry continues on January 31st, next year.