Inquiry findings: The medical records of a number of patients who underwent Caesarean hysterectomies at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda were "deliberately" removed from the hospital, an independent inquiry has found.
The Irish Times has learned that Judge Maureen Harding Clark, who chaired the inquiry, has established that the records were removed deliberately by a person or persons unknown.
The Irish Times has also learned that the inquiry has found that around 160 Caesarean hysterectomies were performed at the hospital between 1974 and 1998. The inquiry report is due to be considered by the Cabinet next week and is expected to be published shortly afterwards.
The inquiry was established in 2004 to examine how so many Caesarean hysterectomies were performed in the maternity unit at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital without this being picked up, commented upon, or investigated.
It was also asked to inquire into how patient files went missing from the hospital.
The Medical Council found the former obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Michael Neary guilty of professional misconduct in 2003 over the unnecessary removal of the wombs of 10 women patients at the hospital. He was then struck off the medical register.
Dr Neary, who worked at the hospital from 1974 to 1998, strongly defended his decision to carry out Caesarean hysterectomies in these 10 cases when he appeared before the Medical Council's Fitness to Practice Committee. He expressed concerns about the adequacy of blood supplies to the hospital and said the non-availability of sterilisation, due to the Catholic ethos of the hospital, "reduced our threshold" for Caesarean hysterectomies.
It is understood the Lourdes Hospital Inquiry found Dr Neary carried out many but not all of the Caesarean hysterectomies performed at the hospital between 1974 and 1998. It is understood the inquiry found he performed around 110 of them.
A previous investigation by the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, which reviewed 39 Caesarean hysterectomies carried out by Dr Neary between 1992 and 1998 found he had a Caesarean hysterectomy rate of 5 per cent.
This was 20 times the recorded rate in one Dublin maternity hospital. It also found there were question marks over almost two-thirds of the Caesarean hysterectomies he had carried out.
Meanwhile, informed sources say the latest inquiry was not able to establish who took the medical records which went missing from the hospital because a large number of individuals would potentially have had access to them. The report deals at length with the way the records should have been signed in and out.
Sources say the Garda is likely to be asked to investigate again how the files went missing, after the report is published. A previous Garda investigation resulted in a file being sent to the DPP but he recommended no prosecution be brought.
The absence of the records has meant a number of women who believe their wombs were unnecessarily removed at the hospital have been unable to sue. The group representing them, Patient Focus, wants a redress board set up to deal with their cases. The Minister for Health Mary Harney has said this request will not be considered until after the inquiry report has been considered.
The latest inquiry also looked at how the former North Eastern Health Board and the hospital responded once news broke in late 1998 that women's wombs may have been removed unnecessarily. It has criticised their initial responses. Sources say the report is very critical of the medical profession in general.