Doctors ‘denied presumption of innocence’ at hearings

Doctors brought before disciplinary hearings of the Medical Council are being denied the Constitutional presumption of innocence, the annual conference of the Irish Medical Organisation has heard.

When a doctor is hauled before the council’s fitness to practise committee, they are treated as “guilty unless proven otherwise,” IMO past president Asam Ishtiaq told the conference.

Dr Ishtiaq said the media loved to cover the initial days of a hearing, when allegations and counter-allegations were made in public, but were not around when the result comes out. As a result, hundreds of the doctor’s patients may be concerned about allegations which may not be proven at the end of the day.

He also criticised the council for accepting anonymous complaints. “All some nutcase needs to do is send in a complaint and everyone has to spend thousands of euro defending the case.”

Another speaker said it was “despicable” of journalists to take photographs of people going into a hearing, before guilt or innocence was established.

The conference passed a motion calling the council to review the complaint system so as to encourage legitimate complaints but discourage frivolous complaints.

Prescription charges

Separately, Dublin GP Ray Walley said as a result of prescription charges, some of his patients could not afford their medication and were picking and choosing which ones they could manage to pay for. It went against the findings of all international studies and would end up costing more money in the long run.

However, Mayo GP Ken Egan said there had to be some disincentives in the system. An "open-ended" health system could not survive, he said.

He cited the example of two of his patients, one of whom had 38 boxes of Lipitor at home, while the other had €5,000 worth of inhalers and steroids in the house.

Delegates called on Minister for Health Leo Varadkar to provide resources to give the HPV vaccine to teenage boys.

The vaccine is currently provided for teenage girls to protect against cervical cancer but Dr David O’Gorman said it was “plain wrong” that boys were being discriminated against by not receiving it.

Another speaker, Dr Patrick O’Sullivan, described the State’s actions as “a job half done”. Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is associated with a number of cancers, including one in five cases of head, neck and throat cancers.