A consultant psychiatrist suspended in Canada for two years because of alleged improper sexual relations with a patient and who has worked at Bantry General Hospital for the past year will not work there again, according to the Southern Health Board, until a full investigation has been carried out into his circumstances.
The board said last evening that the consultant, Dr Joseph B.A. Meagher (40), was off duty and would not be returning to his work as a locum consultant in the 18-unit wing of the psychiatric section of the hospital until its investigation had been completed.
A short statement from the board added that there would be no further comment in the best interests of all parties concerned. Two years ago, British Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons suspended the Co Monaghan-born doctor for a two-year period and ordered him to pay substantial costs following a hearing into his alleged relationship with a patient who had been referred to him suffering from depression. He subsequently left Canada and began practising more than a year ago at Bantry General Hospital.
He did not inform the hospital authorities that he had been indicted of improprieties by the college to which he was registered or that in a subsequent appeal, a Vancouver court upheld the college's decision. The doctor is now making a further appeal to the British Columbia court of appeal.
In an interview with The Irish Times earlier this week in Bantry, Dr Meagher confirmed that he had been suspended for two years and that he had lost a court appeal against the suspension.
Protesting his innocence, he said the suspension, which ended only last week, had amounted to "a travesty of justice". He was not contactable yesterday. The doctor has denied categorically that he had an improper sexual relationship with one of his patients and has said that his aim is to clear his name. Yesterday the Medical Council confirmed Dr Meagher's claim that he had made it aware of events in Canada prior to his return to Ireland. Mr William Kennedy, the legal adviser to the council, said that Dr Meagher had informed the council authorities of "certain events" in Canada but that specific cases could not be discussed. However, he said, the council had noted a report in yesterday's Irish Times in which a story concerning Dr Meagher had appeared. Under the Medical Practitioners Act (1978), the Council, he added, was not at liberty to make available details of whether an inquiry was under way.
It could do so only when an inquiry had been completed and a finding of professional misconduct had been handed down.
Mr Kennedy said it would be speculative to suggest that an inquiry had already begun, but added that it would be normal for the council to make note of pertinent matters in the national media concerning a doctor and to pass them on to a section of the council known as The Fitness to Practise Committee. It was not clear at this stage whether there would or would not be an inquiry, he said.
Dr Morris VanAndel, deputy registrar of the British Colombia College of Physicians and Surgeons, said the college did what it could to publicise Dr Meagher's guilt and penalty.
A release was issued to news media throughout British Columbia in 1997, and copies were sent to government offices and newspapers in Ireland and Nova Scotia.