The report into the high level of Caesarean hysterectomies at the maternity unit of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda should be published in full, Tánaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney said today.
Harney says report has huge implications
Speaking to reporters this morning, Ms Harney warned against a "selective approach". She said the report was "very comprehensive and robust" and had "huge implications" about how health facilities are run in the State.
The report will be discussed by the Cabinet tomorrow and published subsequently.
According to the report, inspections of the maternity unit at the Co Louth hospital by three different professional bodies over several years did not uncover the high level of hysterectomies.
It refers to inspections of the unit by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Medical Council and An Bord Altranais on various dates between 1974 and 1998 and the fact that no significant criticisms were expressed by any of these in relation to clinical practices in the unit.
However, the purpose of their inspections was to view training facilities.
Since news broke in 1998 that women may have had unnecessary surgery at the unit, many women have claimed their wombs were unnecessarily removed. Michael Neary, an obstetrician at the unit at the time, was struck off the medical register after he was found guilty of professional misconduct in 2003 over the unnecessary removal of the wombs of 10 women patients at the hospital.
This inquiry, which was chaired by Judge Maureen Harding Clark, found that of 188 patients who underwent peripartum hysterectomy (a hysterectomy within six weeks of giving birth) at the unit between 1974 and 1998, some 129 of them were carried out by Dr Neary. Most obstetricians carry out less than 10 in their careers.
The group representing some of the affected women, Patient Focus, criticised the fact that the contents of the report were leaked to a Sunday newspaper.
Spokeswoman Cathriona Molloy told RTÉ news today: "We didn't have enought time to digest the report. . . . It is just another slap in the face for the women that it was leaked."
She denied that members of her group had leaked the contents of the report, a copy of which they received in advance.