A GREEK neurosurgeon who was dismissed from Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, in June 1991 yesterday lost his Supreme Court case to have the decision overturned.
Dr Christos Georgopoulos had failed in a High Court action in July 1993 to have the hospital's action ruled invalid. He appealed the High Court finding to the Supreme Court.
The Chief Justice, Mr Justice Hamilton, dismissed all grounds of appeal. The other judges on the bench, Mr Justice O'Flaherty and Mr Justice Barrington, agreed.
In the High Court, Mr Justice Murphy said Dr Georgopoulos had been given ample opportunity by the hospital board to deal with allegations that he was unavailable to medical and nursing staff while on duty and thereby placed the management and care of patients at risk.
The board also found that on numerous occasions, he was uncooperative with medical, paramedical and nursing staff with whom good team work was necessary for care and treatment of patients.
Dr Georgopoulos, who returned to Athens as a consultant neurosurgeon after his dismissal, sought reinstatement at Beaumont Hospital where he had been taken on as a neurosurgical registrar in October 1989. He challenged his dismissal in the High Court on the basis that legal advice given to the hospital board hearing by its legal assessor was given in the absence of his own legal advisers.
On the application of Mr Ercus Stewart SC, for Beaumont Hospital board, the Supreme Court allowed it the costs of the High Court hearing, which lasted two days, and the Supreme Court appeal hearing, which took a day.