State to 'pursue insurers' for Neary redress

The State will pay compensation to the women affected by procedures carried out at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, and will pursue the insurers to recoup it, Tánaiste Mary Harney confirmed in the Dáil.

She said legislation would not be necessary for a redress scheme, "but it may be necessary to pursue insurers. It is not my view that we would have to wait for that legislation to proceed with the scheme. We could do the legislation while the scheme is under way." The Government "has not formalised any compensation scheme, but that is something we want to do as quickly as possible".

During health questions, she said: "I am determined to ensure if we can that the State pursues the insurers and that the taxpayers don't carry all of the cost of any compensation scheme."

She emphasised that "the women will not be left waiting. They have to come first."

She added: "We will not be found wanting in terms of the speed with which we make things happen." Members of Patient Focus, the group representing women who had their wombs or other body parts removed unnecessarily at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, sat in the public gallery during question time.

Labour's health spokeswoman, Liz McManus, asked if women not included in the terms of reference who lost ovaries or whose babies died would benefit from the scheme.

Ms Harney said that the judge and she herself had met those women. "Although they are not referred to specifically in the report, I have huge sympathy for them and the position they find themselves in and I've made that clear to the Government."

Earlier Ms McManus asked about the concerns regarding current practice in other hospitals in peripheral areas.

The Labour TD asked if the Minister accepted that the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists had been discredited and it could not be depended on to carry out a national assessment of hospitals.

The Tánaiste said that the Medical Council was the regulatory body for the medical profession and it approved the training facilities. "These bodies have issues which must be examined." Ms Harney said that "patient care and safety must be paramount". She believed that Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital is now "probably the safest place in the country".

Specialist doctors would have to meet "competence assurance standards every few years" under the Medical Practitioners Bill. She told Green Party leader Trevor Sargent that the Bill would be published and come before the Oireachtas by the summer.

She told Sinn Féin's health spokesman, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, that she would bring the compensation scheme to Government as early as possible in March. On Monday, Ms Harney will meet Judge Maureen Harding Clark, the author of the report which found an abnormally high rate of hysterectomies at the hospital. Mr Ó Caoláin emphasised that Dr Michael Neary, who was struck off the medical register for unnecessary hysterectomies, was not the only person involved.

Ms Harney said that next week hospital doctors on the ground and management at the Drogheda hospital would meet to ensure the report's remaining recommendations are implemented quickly. "There will be no excuse for not implementing them."

She added: "We need clinical governance. If that had been in operation here this tragedy would have been avoided. Consultants will work in teams and not as sole operators and will be responsible to a clinical director, who will have overall responsibility."