The two most senior medical personnel at Peamount Hospital yesterday secured interim High Court orders restraining their removal from their positions.
Ms Justice Laffoy granted the interim injunctions to Mr Michael Cush SC, for Prof Luke Clancy and Dr Paul Kelly, respectively medical director and senior hospital medical officer of Peamount. The orders were made returnable to Monday next.
The judge said she was making the orders because Prof Clancy had 20 patients under his care in the hospital. In Dr Kelly's case, she made the order in light of a letter of March 18th which indicated that if Dr Kelly was not prepared to take up a new post - which post, the judge noted, Dr Kelly had not been formally offered - he was to be treated as having resigned.
Peamount Hospital is the national specialist referral centre for tuberculosis. Last July a five-year plan was published for the hospital which stated that it wished to refocus its services to provide a range of rehabilitation and continuing care services.
The plan rejected an option for Peamount to be a "chest hospital", which would have involved developing links between the 60-bed respiratory unit at Peamount and St James's Hospital in Dublin.
Mr Cush said Prof Clancy, who had been medical director at Peamount since 1980, attended there two days a week and was on call on a permanent basis. His expertise was in TB and respiratory diseases. Dr Kelly reported to Prof Clancy and had the same area of expertise but was not a consultant.
It was no secret the plaintiffs had opposed aspects of the proposed restructuring, especially the closing of the hospital's chest unit, counsel said. However, that was a policy debate and his clients were not in court trying to impose their views in that regard.
Rather, it was the implementation of the proposed strategy that gave rise to the legal action, particularly a notification of March 8th informing Prof Clancy he was to be made redundant. He was given 12 months' notice but was told he was required to work just for a further two weeks, which period expired yesterday.
Mr Cush said the central plank of the case arose from the absence of any transitional arrangements to take over from the absence of Prof Clancy.
Although there were no such arrangements and some 20 patients had been admitted under Prof Clancy's care prior to his receiving notice, Prof Clancy was still being told he should not turn up for work after yesterday.
He had taken up the absence of transitional arrangements with members of the hospital board and was given specific assurances to the effect it would be business as usual until such arrangements were in place. It was on that basis he had continued to admit patients under his care. He had told the board he would not resign because of the implications for patients who remained under his care.
In Dr Kelly's case, he had had a discussion with the CEO of the hospital on March 4th, at which a new post was outlined to him and it was indicated the board was considering offering him that post.
Dr Kelly had pointed out difficulties with that, stating he felt he was not qualified for the position as he was not a consultant. The proposed post was not a position recognised by Comhairle na hOspidéal. There was no equivalent post in Ireland.
A letter of March 18th to an Irish Medical Organisation representative from the CEO of Peamount stated, "almost in passing", that if Dr Kelly did not take up the post, the board would be forced to treat him as having resigned. Mr Cush said Dr Kelly had not been formally offered the post, nor had he formally declined it.
Mr Cush said he would be seeking declarations that the purported redundancy of Prof Clancy was invalid or, alternatively, a declaration that it was invalid until the hospital's respiratory and TB-related services had been transferred to another facility capable of accepting those services or until all existing patients under his care had been discharged. Prof Clancy was also claiming to be entitled to work out his notice period. Dr Kelly was seeking a declaration that he is and continues to be senior hospital medical officer at Peamount and was not to be treated as having resigned.
