The three leading Dublin consultant obstetricians who provided reports in 1998 exonerating the practice of Drogheda obstetrician Dr Michael Neary have been referred by the Medical Council to its Fitness to Practise (FTP) Committee.
The council, which is the regulatory body for doctors, will also ask the committee to review the professional conduct of consultant anaesthetists who worked with Dr Neary in the obstetrics unit of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, in Drogheda, between 1974 and 1998.
The decision to formally assess the doctors' fitness to practise was made during a two-day meeting of the Medical Council which considered in detail the report of Judge Maureen Harding Clark into peripartum hysterectomy at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.
Separately, a formal complaint has been made to the Medical Council about the three obstetricians by Patient Focus, the group representing women damaged by Dr Neary. It has asked the council to conduct a fitness to practise inquiry into the three.
They were not named in Judge Harding Clark's report but The Irish Times has established that they were: Prof Walter Prendiville, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the Coombe Women's Hospital in Dublin; Dr John Murphy, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street; and Dr Bernard Stuart of the Coombe Women's Hospital.
According to Judge Harding Clark's report, the three obstetricians "have had serious regret for their part in producing these reports, which were motivated by compassion and collegiality". While acknowledging their reports may have been prepared for limited viewing, the judge said the language used was "regrettable".
Following a review of nine cases of Caesarean hysterectomy carried out by Dr Neary between 1996 and 1998, one of the obstetricians said: "It is my firm conclusion that Dr Neary should continue to work in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital pending any formal investigation."
The other two consultants concluded: "We find no evidence of questionable clinical judgment, poor operative ability or faulty decision-making [by Dr Neary]."
The Irish Times understands that, based on these and other findings in Judge Harding Clark's report, the Medical Council decided the three obstetricians had a case to answer before its FTP Committee.
The council's FTP Committee will now write to the doctors, requesting their observations and comments. It will then decide whether a prima facie case of professional misconduct exists, at which point a formal inquiry may be held.
The president of the Medical Council, Dr John Hillery, said last night that, "the council is determined that events similar to those described in the report of Judge Maureen Clark do not happen again".