Unfit doctors should be rooted out - FG

Doctors who should not be practising medicine need to be rooted out of the healthcare system, the Dáil was told yesterday.

Fine Gael health spokesman Dr Liam Twomey said: "they are the ones we have to stop looking after patients and that is extremely important".

He also called for the establishment of a patient safety authority, separate from the Medical Council. There were a small number of complaints to the Medical Council that are "incredibly significant. They are about negligence, incompetence and abuse of power and they're the ones we must root out," he added.

Dr Twomey was speaking during a debate on the Medical Practitioners Bill, which aims to register and regulate the medical profession and ensure competence to practise.

He criticised Minister for Health Mary Harney for constantly linking the legislation with the Neary case.

"Nobody is justifying what Dr Neary did" but the Minister was "demonising everybody" and creating the impression that every doctor "is somehow a Dr Neary in sheep's clothing. I think that's regrettable because . . . doctors are fully behind the Bill and have sought it for the past 20 years."

Dr Twomey said it was hard to know whether the consultants who conducted the review of Dr Neary's cases were "stupid, arrogant or naive".

He said that while they were censured by the fitness to practise committee the general medical council let them off.

"There should have been some significant sanction by the Medical Council, because what they have done to the medical profession is left an indelible stain on the character of all consultants."

During the debate he also warned against the authority given to the Minister for Health over the Medical Council in the Medical Practitioners Bill.

"Absolute power is always abused", and while he did not mind whether there was a lay or medical majority on the Medical Council, it should be strong and "totally independent of the Government".

He said there were more than 9,000 doctors and they needed the full support of strong robust legislation.

Referring to his own training, he recalled how a consultant showed him on his first day in paediatrics how to administer chemotherapy to young children by injecting the base of their spine and setting up a drip.

"The consultant in charge at the time showed me how to do one and then proceeded to put on his coat - he was going to walk away."

He added that the same consultant had later had shown fantastic expertise in A&E when he saved the life of a child with meningitis.

"We must ensure our doctors are properly trained," he said, but warned against handing over the authority for the training of doctors to the Health Service Executive, which was "in flux" and could "implode".