A GROUP supporting victims of the struck-off doctor Michael Shine has written to the Medical Council and An Bord Altranais asking them to investigate named doctors and nurses who supported the former Drogheda surgeon after he was accused of abusing patients.
Dignity 4 Patients spokeswoman Bernadette Sullivan confirmed the move yesterday amid renewed calls for an independent inquiry into the actions of Mr Shine at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, where he worked from 1964 until 1995; the manner in which complaints against him were handled; and the way a subsequent prosecution against him was dealt with.
Mr Shine was struck off the medical register last November after being found guilty of professional misconduct over inappropriate behaviour towards three male patients while working at the hospital. The council said he had abused his professional position by making sexual advances at these patients; by making indecent suggestions and/or behaving indecently to each of them; by assaulting/in-decently assaulting them; undertaking inappropriate and/or improper medical examinations and/or treatments of each of them; failing to treat each of them with due dignity and respect; breaching the trust inherent in the doctor/patient relationship; and bringing the medical profession into disrepute.
There was a Garda investigation into complaints against him several years ago. He was acquitted on all indecent assault charges when tried at Dundalk Circuit Criminal Court in 2003.
Since he was struck off last November, more than 40 further complaints have been made to gardaí, which are now being investigated. A number of civil actions against him are also pending in the High Court. One case was recently adjourned after his insurer, the Medical Defence Union, made it clear it would not be covering him.
While about Ir£1.2 million was set aside by the Medical Missionaries of Mary, which ran the hospital, for victims of Mr Shine when it handed over the hospital to the former North Eastern Health Board in 1997, Ms Sullivan said nobody has yet received any compensation.
She said the Medical Missionaries of Mary should now, like other religious groups in the wake of the publication of the Ryan report, contribute more to some sort of redress scheme for those abused by Mr Shine. “They are now out of step with all the other religious groups involved in Cori,” she said.
Reiterating her previous call for an independent inquiry, she said the Department of Health had been aware of what happened in the Shine case for 15 years but had not held any sort of proper inquiry. Furthermore, she said, Dignity 4 Patients had been seeking a meeting with the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, for months to discuss their concerns, but had yet to be granted one.
The group did, however, meet Justice Minister Dermot Ahern in December and outlined to him why an inquiry was needed. Asked if the Minister was considering an inquiry, his spokesman said he could not comment as the matter was the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation.
The Rape Crisis Network Ireland yesterday backed calls by Dignity 4 Patients for a wide ranging, independent inquiry. Fiona Neary, its executive director, said questions had to be answered such as why Mr Shine was re-instated in his role, why the hospital decided not to investigate the first complaint, and why doctors and nurses in the hospital actively supported the consultant while he was being investigated for sexual assault.