A challenge by a Co Dublin midwife to a legal application by An Bord Altranais (the Nursing Board) to prevent her practising as a midwife has been rejected by a High Court judge.
Ms Ann O Ceallaigh, a self-employed domiciliary midwife, yesterday failed in her challenge to the board's right to apply to the High Court last August for an order preventing her practising as a midwife.
Ms O Ceallaigh, of Temple Crescent, Blackrock, Co Dublin, is the subject of four complaints to the board, two made by the master of a Dublin maternity hospital and two by the matron of another maternity hospital.
In a reserved judgment yesterday, Mr Justice McCracken said an inquiry had started in relation to the first complaint and stood adjourned pending a decision as to whether Ms O Ceallaigh was entitled to have expert witnesses present at the hearing. In relation to the other three complaints, no inquiry had yet commenced.
An Bord Altranais had decided last July that it was in the public interest to apply to the High Court for an order stipulating that Ms O Ceallaigh's registration as a nurse should not have an effect for a certain period.
The High Court made the order which was subsequently altered to prevent Ms O Ceallaigh practising as a midwife, but not as a nurse. Two subsequent orders allowed Ms O Ceallaigh to provide midwifery services to certain named patients. Those orders were still in force.
Mr Justice McCracken rejected submissions on behalf of Ms O Ceallaigh that before An Bord Altranais applied to the High Court to suspend her registration, the board must be satisfied it was in the public interest to do so and that it could not be satisfied without making reasonable inquiry and in particular making inquiries from Ms O Ceallaigh herself.
Mr Justice McCracken decided that as the nursing board's application for a High Court order had succeeded its decision to make the application must have been correct.
Ms O Ceallaigh also challenged the procedure in relation to the last three complaints against her. She accepted that proper procedures were followed in relation to the first, in that she was notified of the complaint and asked for comments before there was a decision to set up an inquiry.
The judge said Ms O Ceallaigh's proceedings in relation to the two complaints made by the hospital matron were misconceived. Ms O Ceallaigh challenged the board's decision to refer the two complaints to the Fitness to Practise Committee but the request came from the hospital matron, not the board.
Mr Justice McCracken said Ms O Ceallaigh had the right to know the evidence to be given against her and the right to put forward her arguments and be represented before any decision was made.