Neary victims group to meet Harney

Representatives of victims of former obstetrician Michael Neary will meet Minister for Health Mary Harney today to discuss a …

Representatives of victims of former obstetrician Michael Neary will meet Minister for Health Mary Harney today to discuss a compensation scheme.

Up to 250 women had their wombs or ovaries unnecessarily removed by Mr Neary at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda up to 1998.

Representative group Patient Focus said victims, many of whose medical records later went missing, could each be entitled to compensation of between €60,000 and €380,000.

Ms Harney will meet members of Patient Focus today to discuss the operation of the scheme, which will also be considered at tomorrow's Cabinet meeting.

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The scheme is based on a model drawn up by Judge Maureen Harding Clark, who conducted the Lourdes Hospital Inquiry into the high rate of Caesarean hysterectomies carried out at the hospital between 1974 and 1998.

The Government held talks with various groups on the redress scheme in recent weeks, including the Medical Missionaries of Mary, who ran the hospital during the 1970s and 1980s, and medical insurers.

The Taoiseach had signalled previously that the State would not pay the full cost of the redress scheme and that it might be shared out between a range of bodies.

More than 100 women had their wombs unnecessarily removed while dozens of others underwent unnecessary gynaecological procedures, such as having their ovaries removed. Patient Focus represents 150 victims but it believes up to 100 other women may also be eligible for compensation.

Mr Neary was suspended by the Irish Medical Council in 1999 and struck off the Register of Medical Practitioners in 2003.

A Supreme Court appeal Mr Neary aimed at halting an action for damages for the alleged unnecessary removal of a Co Louth woman's womb was adjourned last month.