Thirty nine former patients of the disgraced obstetrician Dr Michael Neary whose medical files were examined by independent UK consultants were found to have valid cases for compensation, a new report has found.
The report, commissioned by lobby group Patient Focus, also casts serious doubt on previous suggestions that Dr Neary's fear of blood loss was one of the possible motives for his carrying out Caesarean hysterectomies.
It says the operations he performed, including unnecessary hysterectomies, "would scarcely be contemplated by a doctor who feared blood loss".
"Such a doctor would practise conservative surgery, if any surgery at all," it states. "Fear of excessive blood loss cannot possibly explain his cavalier treatment of women's reproductive organs."
Patient Focus, which commissioned the review of the cases of 62 women, says that while 30 of those found to have valid cases are already before a Government redress scheme, the remaining nine have no access to the scheme due to its terms of reference. It says it is also aware of at least another 18 women who have no access to the scheme, while it knows of about 60 former patients of Dr Neary who are awaiting medical reports to determine whether they have valid cases.
Patient Focus estimates that should the terms of reference of the redress scheme be extended, as it wishes, a further 60 women may require compensation, although the final figure could vary significantly.
The group presented a copy of the new report to Minister for Health Mary Harney on December 14th last. Last April, she announced that the redress scheme was expected to cost a maximum of €45 million and would cover some 172 patients.
UK-based consultants doctors Roger Clements and Richard Porter saw a total of 62 former patients of Dr Neary between August 14th and 17th last year.
They found that the most common unnecessary procedure was the removal of both ovaries or a single remaining ovary - known as bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, (BSO). They state that when this is not clinically indicated and advisable, it "unneccessarily removes physiologically desirable sex hormones - castration in other words."
Some 22 women aged between 31 and 47 had this type of unwarranted procedure, while a further ten had, in addition, unnecessary hysterectomies, they note.
The report finds that other women were "coerced into having their ovaries (and sometimes their uterus) removed on the basis that they had endometriosis." This diagnosis was "almost always made on clinical examination alone."
A spokesman for Ms Harney last night said she would be having further discussions with the Attorney General.