50 GPs sign petition calling for Navan surgeon to be reinstated

Fifty Meath GPs have sent a petition to the Health Service Executive (HSE) chief executive Brendan Drumm calling for the reinstatement of the consultant surgeon, Mr Joe McGrath, who has been suspended from the staff of Our Lady's Hospital in Navan. The GPs claim that his suspension is linked to his publicly-stated opposition to HSE cutbacks which he says have led to a "downgrading"of the hospital. Claims that there was no consultant surgeon on duty at the hospital last week as a result of the suspension have been denied by the HSE. The Mayor of Navan, Cllr Joe Reilly, said it was his information that there was no acute surgeon on duty and has called on Minister for Health Mary Harney to institute an investigation "into what is happening at Our Lady's Hospital at present". Mr McGrath was suspended last month over two complaints made against him in relation to two operations he carried out a number of weeks ago. GPs have said that both operations were carried out successfully and claim that the suspension has been carried out because of Mr McGrath's long-term campaign over cuts at the Navan hospital. The complaints about Mr McGrath are believed to have been made by HSE staff members to the Irish Medical Council. However, the exact basis for the complaints have not been revealed publicly so far. The consultant himself has instigated his own legal action against the HSE. The case is in the High Court and it is believed in the medical profession that it involves an alleged breach of a contractual agreement the HSE had with the consultant. He has claimed that the contract was broken through the downgrading of services at the Navan hospital. One of the GPs who signed the petition to Professor Drumm told the Meath Chronicle yesterday (Tuesday) that "very summary procedures" were used in suspending Mr McGrath. The GP said it was believed that Mr McGrath had been escorted from the hospital on the receipt of complaints and that he had been denied access to documents which he intended to use in order to defend his position. The GP said that those who had signed the petition had a concern for the reputation of the individual involved and also for the hospital. He said they were also concerned about the risk to the reputation of medical practice in Meath. The GP claimed there was no acute surgeon on duty in the hospital last week and that GPs were having to search around elsewhere to get access for their patients. Cllr Reilly said that he also had been informed that no acute consultant surgeon had been in place in the hospital last week. If that was the case, he said, it was "totally unacceptable medical practice". He went on: "If, as the GPs have claimed, the consultant concerned was suspended for 'political' reasons, for highlighting the downgrading of hospital services, then that amounts to serious victimisation of a person and I would call on the Minister for Health Mary Harney to institute an inquiry immediately into what is happening at Our Lady's. "It is accepted and well-known that a stealth policy of downgrading of the hospital has been in progress for many years. It is against all democratic rights and principles that a person who has expressed opposition to this should be put under suspension."