Legal News (Healthcare Law)

On 9 July 2015, Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley ruled that an acutely ill and profoundly disabled 10 year old girl who resides in state care should not be resuscitated or receive emergency lifesaving intervention. The girl has been resident in state care since she was admitted to hospital with serious brain damage aged 4 months.

In a report on the cost of medical indemnity insurance published in June this year, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children (the Committee) identified key concerns and made recommendations to the Ministers for Health and Justice, the HSE and other stakeholders.

Following a recent landmark decision in the matter of Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board, handed down by the UK Supreme Court on 11th March 2015, Alison Kelleher and Sharon McCauley highlight the key findings for healthcare professionals.

The office of ombudsman Peter Tyndall recently applied to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for an extension of its jurisdiction to encompass matters concerning clinical judgment.

The Medical Council recently published its Annual Report for 2014. Aisling Malone of Hayes solicitors summarises the trends in the general profile of the profession and also in the Medical Council’s complaints process.

On 1 May 2015, Judgment was given by Justice Cross of the High Court in a case where a woman, who asked to remain anonymous, brought a claim in relation to a symphysiotomy she underwent at a Dublin hospital in 1963. The woman claimed she suffered life-long pain following the procedure and could not bond with her baby daughter after the birth because she was in such pain.