Medical Council appeals High Court ruling quashing findings against surgeon

The Medical Council has appealed a High Court ruling that overturned its findings against a consultant paediatric surgeon at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin.

Prof Martin Corbally, currently practising in Bahrain, successfully took the High Court action which resulted in the quashing of a decision by the council that found him guilty of poor professional performance last year.

The case involved a two-year-old patient of Dr Corbally’s on whom another doctor carried out an unnecessary “tongue-tie” procedure in April 2010, releasing the fold of skin beneath her tongue.

The young girl had actually required surgery to release the fold of skin attaching her upper lip to her gum.

Corrective surgery was quickly carried out by Dr Corbally and the young girl made a full recovery.

President of the High Court Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns ruled the findings made by the Medical Council were “disproportionate” and not reasonable and amounted to blaming Dr Corbally for systems failures at Our Lady’s hospital for which he was not responsible.

Definition A central issue in the case involved the court considering for the first time what was captured by the definition of poor professional performance in the 2007 Medical Practitioners Act.

The Act introduced poor professional performance for the first time and prior to it, only professional misconduct was a consideration in actions taken against doctors.

Mr Justice Kearns ruled that because the Act did not allow for an appeal against a sanction imposed for poor professional performance it was appropriate to read it as requiring a single lapse or offence by a doctor to be “serious”.

There has been a drop-off in the number of fitness-to-practise hearings held by the Medical Council since the ruling, with only three scheduled since the beginning of this year, compared with more than a dozen over the same period last year.

Contact Responding to parliamentary questions tabled by Jerry Buttimer TD, Minister for Health Dr James Reilly said yesterday his department had been in contact with the council on the issue since February 2014.

Dr Reilly said given the importance of the ruling to patients in Ireland, the council was seeking an early date for the Supreme Court hearing.

The council would continue to investigate every complaint it received, he said. The Minister did not provide figures on the number of complaints adjourned, discontinued or affected by the Corbally judgment.