Women to get up to €150,000 under symphysiotomy sceheme

The vast majority of women who underwent a symphysiotomy are likely to receive an award of €100,000 under the terms of the Government’s redress scheme, according to the assessor appointed to run it.

Retired judge Maureen Harding Clark described the scheme as very simple, saying she is proposing banded payments of €50,000, €100,000 and €150,000 to about 350 women who underwent the procedure in Irish hospitals between 1940 and 1990.

She said she aimed to give as much in payments as possible to as many women as possible under the terms of the scheme.

“I will do everything I can to make it an easy-to-handle scheme and to give as many people their money as quickly as possible.”

About 150 women who had a symphysiotomy have begun High Court proceedings, but these will have to be withdrawn in order to qualify for payment under the scheme. Additional payments of up to €6,000 are proposed to cover legal costs in such cases, and €5,000 will be paid to cover the legal costs involved in applying for a payment.

Criticism

The €34 million scheme, which opens on Monday, is confidential and Judge Harding Clark said she hoped to wrap up her work within four to six months. She acknowledged some had criticised the sums on offer as inadequate, but said: “It’s what’s on offer and easily on offer.”

The scheme also covers a small number of women – thought to be no more than three in total – who had a pubiotomy, which involves cuts through the pubic bone.

Women have been given four weeks to apply but may ask the assessor for an additional four weeks, to January 14th, 2015, “in exceptional circumstances”.

Survivors of Symphysiotomy, one of the groups representing women, rejected the scheme yesterday but advised members to apply anyway.

“Our advice to any survivor thinking of applying for the scheme is to heed the advice of their legal advisers, apply for €100,000 and keep their legal actions going forward,” spokeswoman Marie O’Connor said.

She criticised the time limit for applying, saying it made it impossible for women to make a considered decision.

Matter of choice

Another group,

Patient Focus

, welcomed the announcement but said it was a matter of personal choice for women to decide what to do.

Symphysiotomy involved cutting a pregnant woman’s pubic bone to widen the birth canal. It was carried out on about 1,500 women between the 1920s and mid-1980s. About 80 per cent of operations took place in private hospitals. For many women, it left permanent injuries such as incontinence, difficulty walking and chronic pain.