The Medical Council today said it would vigorously defend a High Court challenge brought by two obstetricians censured over exonerating a disgraced doctor.
Three of the country's most senior obstetricians were this month found guilty of professional misconduct by the council after they exonerated the practice of Michael Neary, who carried out 129 hysterectomies over a 25-year period.
Dr Michael Neary
The council found Professor Walter Prendiville, Dr John Murphy and Dr Bernard Stuart negligent in clearing the obstetrician of any wrongdoing after reviewing nine of his Caesarean hysterectomy cases at the Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth.
Lawyers for Dr Murphy and Prof Prendiville have lodged papers in the High Court challenging the findings of the council's Fitness to Practise Committee.
A statement from the Medical Council today said: "The council will defend the proceedings vigorously."
Dr Neary, who was later struck off the Medical Register for one of the worst examples of medical malpractice in Ireland, needlessly removed the wombs of expectant mothers during his career at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
Prof Prendiville, of the Coombe Women's Hospital in Dublin, Dr Murphy, of the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, and Dr Stuart, also of the Coombe Women's Hospital, were asked by the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association to examine a number of cases of Caesarean hysterectomies carried out by Dr Neary between 1996 and 1998.
An investigation found the Dublin-based obstetricians had allowed Dr Neary to continue working in Drogheda even after serious concerns had been raised about his surgical practice.
The damning Lourdes Hospital Inquiry, chaired by Judge Maureen Harding Clarke, found a total of 188 peripartum hysterectomies were carried out at Drogheda in the 25-year period from 1974 to 1998, of which 129 were attributed to Dr Neary.