A scheme agreed yesterday by the Government to compensate women damaged by the former Drogheda obstetrician Dr Michael Neary will cost €45 million.
The bulk of this money will come from State funds with just €7.7 million coming from the insurers of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth, where Dr Neary worked and the Medical Protection Society, which insured some doctors there.
However neither the Medical Defence Union (MDU), which insured Dr Neary, nor the Medical Missionaries of Mary, which ran the hospital before it was taken over by the State in 1997, would contribute to the scheme.
Minister for Health Mary Harney appealed to the nuns to reconsider their decision. She confirmed the order of nuns had conditionally offered €2 million towards the scheme but said the conditions on which it was offered were unacceptable.
"They wanted to be indemnified against any action in relation to any patient both at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital and also in relation to another hospital that they have in the country and clearly that would not have been a good deal from the taxpayers' perspective," she said. She added that the State paid about €5.5 million to the nuns for the hospital and a sum of that order might be appropriate for them to give back to the redress scheme. A spokesman for the order claimed its insurers had contributed €6 million to the scheme. Ms Harney said she did not believe the State could pursue Dr Neary personally and stressed the State was in ongoing litigation with the MDU.
Women who were damaged will receive payouts under the scheme of between €60,000 and €380,000. Only former patients of Dr Neary, who has been struck off the medical register for professional misconduct, will be covered by it. It is expected about 172 women will benefit. The cases of another seven women, who had other gynaecological procedures at the hands of Dr Neary, are being referred to the State Claims Agency.
Women whose wombs were removed will be eligible for compensation of between €60,000 and €260,000 while those whose ovaries were removed will be eligible for payments of between €80,000 and €340,000. Those who suffered both will be eligible for payments of up to €380,000. The money will be tax free.
Payments will depend on the age of the women when they were damaged and the number of children they had before their ability to have more was taken from them.
Cathriona Molloy welcomed the scheme on behalf of Patient Focus.
Compensation: what women will get
Examples of the amounts women damaged by Dr Michael Neary will receive under the redress scheme:
• A woman who was aged 28 and had four children at the time of her hysterectomy will receive €140,000
• A woman who was aged 33 and had four children at the date of her hysterectomy, which included the removal of her ovaries, will receive €180,000
• A woman who was aged 36 with no previous children who had her womb removed after having her first child will receive €160,000
• A woman who was aged 32 with two children when she unnecessarily had her ovaries removed will receive €180,000.