The High Court suspended the registration of an anonymised doctor and continued a ban on his practising medicine until further steps are taken under the Medical Practitioners Act 2007. The order followed an application by the Medical Council under section 60, which the court heard in camera before delivering its judgment in open court without naming the doctor.
The Council’s application relied on two complaints made in August 2018 by senior doctors at University Maternity Hospital, Limerick, where the respondent had started work as a Senior House Officer in obstetrics and gynaecology in July. The complaints alleged serious deficiencies in basic clinical skills and medical knowledge. Hospital staff said he had been restricted to supervised duties after concerns arose shortly after he began work.
The complaints included accounts of an assessment in which, they said, the doctor struggled to identify causes of anaemia and postpartum haemorrhage, gave aspirin as treatment for pulmonary embolism, and did not know the basic management of eclampsia. One complaint also reported that a supervising doctor found he had diagnosed implantation bleeding in a patient at 35 weeks’ gestation who had placenta praevia. These were allegations and evidence presented to the court, not findings from a fitness-to-practise inquiry.
The doctor attended a Medical Council meeting in August and made oral and written submissions. He said he had told the hospital interview panel that he lacked experience and that his UK hospital placement was an observership. He attributed his performance in the later assessment partly to anxiety. The judge said that explanation did not account for the concerns reported by colleagues from the start of his employment.
The doctor consented to most of the relief sought by the Council but opposed suspension. He did not attend the High Court hearing on 8 October 2018 and filed no affidavit evidence. The judge concluded that the evidence showed a strong case and that the public interest required suspension while the fitness-to-practise process proceeded.
The court ordered the registration suspension and continued the prohibition on medical practice until steps or further steps were taken under Part 7 and, if applicable, Parts 8 and 9 of the Act. It also permitted the Council to notify the Minister for Health and the acting Chief Executive of the Health Service Executive, and directed that they receive the judgment. The court did not decide the final outcome of the fitness-to-practise inquiry.
The judgment also criticised the hospital recruitment process, noting that the interview panel had described the doctor as short of experience despite his lack of prior paid practice as a doctor. The judge urged authorities involved in recruiting junior hospital doctors to review interview procedures.