A High Court judge said he was acting in the interests of patients when he refused yesterday to reinstate a senior medical consultant who is banned from entering a State hospital.
Rejecting an application by Mr Colman Muldoon, a chest specialist, Mr Justice O Caoimh said that in conflicts between doctors and hospital managers, the health and welfare of patients was paramount.
The judge had heard of a six-year dispute between Mr Muldoon and the North Eastern Health Board over the length of stay for Mr Muldoon's patients at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, Co Louth, and the "equitable management of hospital resources."
Mr Muldoon had been told he was no longer welcome at the hospital, where he had worked for 29 years. After being suspended on full pay he claimed he faced irreparable damage to his reputation.
He told the High Court he had learned that the health board intended appointing a temporary independent consultant physician and that his involvement with patients would be considerably reduced.
Mr Finbar Lennon, a consultant surgeon at the hospital, had told the court that the current situation there had reached crisis proportions.
He told Mr Justice O Caoimh that continued excessive use of hospital resources and an over-cautious policy on the discharge of patients by Mr Muldoon had created "a grave problem" to which most of his professional colleagues had objected.
Mr Lennon said decisions had to be taken on occasion to discharge patients who were in a stable condition and sufficiently well to make room for those in greater need.
He said the individual doctor's right to clinical autonomy could not be exercised in an acute hospital such as Our Lady's without due regard to the rights of other doctors and, in particular, other patients.
Mr Ambrose McLoughlin, deputy chief executive officer of the health board, told Mr Justice O Caoimh he was satisfied that between 1,000 and 1,600 additional patients could and should be treated annually within the hospital if Mr Muldoon performed his duties within the norms of his speciality.
Mr Justice O Caoimh held that the health board was not precluded by Mr Muldoon's contract of employment from placing him on administrative leave with pay.
Refusing Mr Muldoon an interlocutory injunction restraining the health board from continuing with its action against him, Mr Justice O Caoimh said that both parties had agreed to a review of Mr Muldoon's medical practices by a group of his peers, to be appointed by the Royal College of Physicians.