The way has been cleared for the investigation of complaints against doctors to be heard in public for the first time in the State's history.
Draft heads of a new Medical Practitioners Bill, unveiled yesterday, make provision for the Medical Council Fitness to Practise Committee hearings to be held in public. It says such hearings will be in public "except where the complainant or the medical practitioner requests otherwise and the committee is satisfied that a private hearing is appropriate".
The move, however, is likely to meet with stiff opposition from doctors. It may also meet resistance from patients in some instances.
But the president of the Medical Council, Dr John Hillery, said last night he had no problem with the change so long as it did not interfere with the council's remit to protect patients and so long as doctors get a fair hearing.
Publishing the new heads of Bill, the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, said complainants believed the existing set-up was "far too secretive and held behind closed doors and that doesn't help public confidence in the system. This is moving away from that particular mindset . . . but this doesn't guarantee that every hearing would be public."
In another significant departure, the new Bill will give the Medical Council, which polices the medical profession, power to investigate persons posing as doctors "or providing services proper only to medical practitioners". It gives power to the council to seek an injunction against these people to stop them in their tracks.
This move will allow the council deal with people like Dr William Porter, an eye surgeon struck off in the US, who has been providing a controversial light treatment for cancer patients in the mid-west. He is not registered as a doctor here. The council up to now could only investigate complaints against registered doctors. Dr Hillery warned the council would required additional resources to do this.
Mr Martin said the Bill's provisions would become law next year. It would deal with issues raised in recent times "including the Porter case in particular", he said.
The new legislation will also allow the council to appoint "investigators" to assist with its Fitness to Practise inquiries and it makes provision for people who are unhappy with the way the council handles their complaints to appeal its ultimate decision to the Ombudsman.
It will make it mandatory for doctors to undergo screening every five years to ensure their knowledge base and competence is still up to scratch. There will also be a greater range of grounds on which inquiries can be held into a doctor's practice. New grounds include "poor professional performance" and "emotional disturbance".