The High Court has accepted an undertaking by Mater Private Hospital to continue Gregory Heffernan’s access to its operating theatres until trial, but declined to require the hospital to restore his clinics there.
The ruling by Ms Justice Egan on 6 May 2022 dealt with the form of relief and costs following an interlocutory judgment delivered on 15 December 2021. In that earlier judgment, the court had found that Heffernan raised a strong case that withdrawal of his practising privileges breached his contract, including the hospital’s 2020 Constitution, and restrained the hospital from terminating those privileges.
The court said the issue before it was whether the interim protection should cover only theatre access or also clinics and side-room procedures. Heffernan argued his privileges included the right to run weekly clinics at the Mater. The hospital disputed that clinics were part of his contractual privileges.
Justice Egan said neither the 2020 Constitution nor the earlier Shanakiel Agreement defined “practising privileges”, and the contractual status of clinics had not needed to be decided in the earlier application. She found the balance of convenience and justice supported continuing theatre access, but not restoring the clinics.
Heffernan had stopped holding clinics at the Mater amid a dispute over nursing support and had been providing clinic services elsewhere in Cork. The court noted he had been away from the Mater clinics for several months, apparently before or around the time the termination notice was served. It also noted the hospital had offered him the opportunity to resume clinics during the notice period, with a nurse available, but he declined.
The judge said the evidence of potential irreparable reputational harm had focused on theatre access. The additional clinic-related concerns raised by Heffernan, including the inconvenience and increased costs of operating in two locations, could be addressed by damages if appropriate. The court therefore accepted the hospital’s undertaking to maintain theatre privileges until trial, on the basis of Heffernan’s undertaking as to damages and an agreed, court-approved timetable to expedite the trial. The ruling did not decide whether clinics were a contractual entitlement.
On costs of the original interlocutory application, the court ordered no award of the hospital’s costs and directed that Heffernan’s costs be costs in the cause, meaning their treatment would follow the outcome of the case. Justice Egan said the central question about whether the 2020 Constitution governed the parties’ relationship would be revisited at trial on oral and documentary evidence, and a different picture could emerge. She also said Heffernan had needed to seek interim relief to avoid irreparable damage and should not be exposed to the hospital’s costs of that application.
The case was to be mentioned on 13 May 2022 to address costs of the supplemental hearing.