A consultant surgeon has been censured by the Medical Council for professional misconduct because of his failure to produce a medical report for a 14-year-old patient involved in a legal action following a road traffic crash.
It is the second time Mr John Flynn (69), a locum surgeon at Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe, Co Galway has been censured for failing to provide such medical reports and for failing to respond to repeated letters and phone calls from lawyers seeking such reports, over a period of years.
Mr Flynn had argued in correspondence with the Medical Council prior to the hearing that providing medical reports for legal cases disrupted his medical practice and inconvenienced patients.
"There has been collusion between the legal and medical professions to generate income for both sides" and he said matters resulting in monetary reward "for services rendered to the legal profession cannot be regarded as an ethical problem".
At today's hearing however, he accepted the charges and the censure and agreed under oath to provide medical reports in future if so required.
Solicitor Vincent Shields said Mr Flynn's primary concern was the care of his patients.
Solicitor for the chief executive of the Medical Council John McDowell told the hearing Mr Flynn treated the then 14-year-old boy following a crash on October 30th 2003. Legal proceedings were subsequently issued arising from the crash and solicitors for the teenager wrote to Mr Flynn seeking a medical report. He failed over a period of years to respond to repeated written requests and phone calls and a complaint was made to the Medical council.
In correspondence with the Medical Council Mr Flynn said he had previously issued medical reports to the legal profession "on the understanding that the care of my patients in hospital are my primary consideration and not the interests of the legal profession".
He said he had been "repeatedly inconvenienced by summons to attend court as a witness" and "could not run a proper surgical practice by wasting my time attending cases that were either settled and could have been settled without my attendance at court or else deferred to another day".
He concluded his letter to the Medical council, received in June 2009, by saying: "I am now looking forward to retiring from medicine to be rid of the legal profession and no doubt the legal profession will be delighted to be rid of me and find somebody more obliging in their view when it comes to issuing of medical reports".
In January 2010 Mr Flynn provided the medical report and made a contribution to a cystic fibrosis charity. Lawyers withdrew the complaint to the medical council. Mr McDowell for the Council said that until that time Mr Flynn "didn't even have the courtesy to respond" to the patient's lawyers.
Solicitor Vincent Shields said Mr Flynn's primary concern was the care of his patients and he would now be in a position to give an undertaking to provide such medial reports in the future if required because there were now three posts at the hospital, where in the past there were only two.
Chairman of the hearing Dr Richard Brennan pointed out that unnecessary delays in responding increased costs and added to the suffering to patients.
In the previous case in 1992 a woman involved in a road crash sought a medical report from Mr Flynn for a legal action. He failed to respond to repeated correspondence for the report. A complaint was subsequently made to the Medical Council. He was censured for professional misconduct and advised of his responsibility to comply with his ethical and moral obligations, to properly communicate with patients and treat them with proper respect and courtesy.
