Pathologist guilty of misconduct

A locum consultant pathologist at the centre of a controversy in 2007 after wrongly reporting a woman’s breast biopsy as benign, when in fact it was malignant, was found guilty of professional misconduct by a Medical Council fitness to practice committee hearing today.

The committee did not recommend that Dr Antoine Geagea (59) be struck-off the register but said he would be censured by council for his conduct and have six conditions attached to retain his name on the medical register.

These conditions include not practicing medicine until doctors provide a fitness to practice medical report, not carrying out non-gynaecological cytology or pathology unless directly supervised and setting up a professional development plan to familiarise himself with non-gynaecological cytology.

The committee found that it was proved as fact that Dr Geagea had erred on one or more of 50 cases identified in the Health Information and Quality Authority report including that of the woman referred to as "Ms A".

The misdiagnoses fell seriously short of the standard of conduct expected, the committee found. It also found the rate of errors was unacceptable.

The committee's recommendations will next go before the Medical Council for a decision.

Dr Geagea (59) was employed as a locum at University Hospital Galway (UCHG) from September 4th 2006 to March 30th 2007.

The hearing was sparked by the case a woman known as "Ms A" who attended Barrington's private hospital in Limerick which sent biopsies to UCHG.

Her breast cancer was misdiagnosed by Dr Geagea and another pathologist on two separate occasions at UCHG in September 2005 and March 2007.

However when the woman's third biopsy was sent to Bon Secours, Cork in 2007 the errors came to light.

This resulted in a review of pathology services at UCHG by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) which found 50 errors in a review of Dr Geagea's work. HIQA made a complaint about Dr Geagea to the Medical Council.

The woman known as "Ms A" was present in the public gallery today. Dr Geagea did not appear at the hearing nor was he represented.