Doctor treating Irish troops in Liberia was struck off

Just one soldier has so far contacted a medical helpline established by the Defence Forces after it emerged that a South African doctor on contract to the Irish contingent in Liberia had been struck off the medical register in his home country months earlier.

Dr Wynne Lieberthal was listed on a website as "No 4 on a list of the top 100 newsmakers in South Africa for 2002, having set a new record for the highest number of complaints laid against a doctor at the Health Professions council", Fine Gael's Defence spokesman Billy Timmins told the Dáil.

Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea said last night that he was waiting for an urgent report from the chief of staff of the Defence Forces on the case and legal advice was being sought in relation to a UK-based medical recruitment agency, which recommended Dr Wynne Lieberthal at a fee of €2,630 a week.

Mr O'Dea said he had only heard about the issue on Friday, and it was only after his contract had expired that it came to the attention of the military authorities that he had been struck off the South African medical register in July 2004.

The Minister said the doctor provided largely routine GP-type services.

He was "extremely concerned as to how this situation arose and I will ensure that all necessary steps are taken to avoid any possible repetition".

Mr Timmins, who raised the issue, said it was an "extremely serious lapse" that a simple website search would have found that "he had been suspended from Johannesburg hospital and an audit was going to be carried out on all the operations he conducted".

The South African doctor served for just over a year until December last year.

The Fine Gael TD said the doctor also treated up to 500 Swedish soldiers and he asked if the State was now legally exposed to an unacceptable degree following the appointment of this doctor.

Mr Timmins said that while the agency was registered with the British companies office there was no telephone number for the company, and directory inquiries was unable to provide a number for such an agency.

Mr O'Dea said the contract of Medicare Solutions agency in Chessington, Surrey, England, included a requirement to pursue registration with the Irish Medical Council.

The doctor applied for but never received Irish Medical Council registration, and this would form part of the report from the chief of staff.