Call for doctor acquittal rejected

An application to acquit a Kildare-based doctor of charges he made false and misleading claims in relation to "salt cave climate therapy" has been rejected by the Medical Council.

Dr Simon Mills, counsel for Dr Tamas Bakonyi of Maynooth, asked the Medical Council fitness to practice inquiry to dismiss two charges against his client.

The charges allege Dr Bakonyi, who qualified in Hungary in 1997 and moved to Ireland in 2005, was guilty of professional misconduct and/or poor professional performance through false and misleading claims he made in promoting his salt cave therapy clinic.

The inquiry heard the claims were made in local and national newspapers and RTÉ radio. It was also claimed the use of a celebrity endorsement by actress Adele King, also known as Twink, could unreasonably raise expectations among prospective patients.

The clinic aimed to recreate the atmosphere of underground salt caves. The inquiry was told Dr Bakonyi offered the services of the clinic as a treatment for patients with a range of bronchial ailments including asthma and chest infections.

However, Dr Mills said the chief witness for the Medical Council, clinical professor of respiratory medicine at Trinity College Dublin and a consultant at Tallaght Hospital Stephen Lane, had acknowledged that the actions complained of did not amount to "misconduct".

Dr Mills said it would therefore be "impossible" for the Medical Council to find his client guilty on the charge of misconduct.

He further said the charge of poor professional performance should be struck out as evidence had not been given by a peer general practitioner.

Quoting case law on the subject, Dr Mills said he believed it would be essential that evidence be taken from a fellow general practitioner. "When you are assessing the clinical performance of a clinical specialist, you must compare them to a similar clinical specialist," he said.

Dr Mills said it was therefore not safe to find against his client "when the only evidence is from an expert in respiratory medicine who said, quite honestly, he wasn't qualified to talk about a general practitioner".

However solicitor JP McDowell for the Medical Council argued that Professor Lane was "exactly" the right person to give evidence on respiratory ailments.

In addition the Medical Council’s legal assessor Seamus Woulfe SC said “there are cases where experts can give evidence of the validity and appropriateness of a treatment offered by any medical practitioner”.

This is about salt cave therapy and it doesn't really make a whole lot of difference whether it is offered in a primary care centre" he said.

The case is to resume this afternoon.