Healthcare Law

Doctors and patients are suffering mental harm as a result of Ireland's slow and expensive litigation process, the Medical Protection Society (MPS) has said. A new MPS report states that a clinical negligence claim in Ireland takes an average of 1,462 days to resolve, 14 per cent longer than in Sout

The Court of Appeal has upheld the dismissal of a clinical negligence claim in circumstances where no expert report had been obtained by the plaintiff’s solicitors almost eight years after the proceedings had issued. Delivering judgment for the Court of Appeal, Mr Justice Seamus Noonan denounc

Karen Kearney, partner at Cantillons Solicitors, comments on the coming investigation into Aoife Johnston's death at University Hospital Limerick. I listened with interest to an interview on Morning Ireland on 5 January 2024 with Stephen Donnelly, our minister for health. He was asked by Rachel Engl

Northern Ireland barrister James Stitt examines a Scottish case with significance for clinical negligence practitioners. Once more, a Scottish case has provided an opportunity for a substantial development of the law in the field of clinical negligence.

Medical and professional negligence specialist firm Liston Flavin LLP has promoted Aoife O'Kane to partner. Ms O'Kane has six years' experience practising as a solicitor, primarily in plaintiff medical negligence litigation.

Medical evidence shows "no connection" between the Covid vaccination administered to a 14-year-old boy and his death 24 days later, a coroner has found. Patrick O'Connor, coroner for the district of Mayo, returned an open verdict after a three-day inquest into the death of Joseph McGinty in Septembe

A non-statutory inquiry into the historical licensing and use of sodium valproate (Epilim) in women of child-bearing potential is moving forward, the government has said. Health minister Stephen Donnelly said he had secured government approval to progress the inquiry he first announced nearly three

The Department of Health has been fined after unlawfully using private information about plaintiffs and their families in special educational needs litigation to decide whether to propose settlements. The Data Protection Commission (DPC) this week imposed a €22,500 fine on the Department after

Social care workers will become a regulated profession by November 2025, the government has confirmed following the signing into law of new legislation. The Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Act 2023 amends the Medical Practitioners Act 2007, the Health and Social Care Professionals A

Healthcare lawyer Sinéad Corcoran has been appointed to the Medical Council for a five-year term. Ms Corcoran was appointed by health minister Stephen Donnelly to serve on the regulator until 31 May 2028 following her nomination by the Private Hospitals Association (PHA).

Solicitor Orla Crowe has joined the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI) as its new director of fitness to practise. Ms Crowe is a solicitor with over 11 years of professional experience. She previously worked in the health and social care department of law firm ByrneWallace, where she spec

The Supreme Court has held that the HSE’s CEO was entitled to suspend a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist after he had performed experiments on several patients without their consent. The Court of Appeal had previously ruled the ongoing suspension to be unlawful, holding there was no e

Legislation providing for the mandatory open disclosure of serious patient safety incidents has completed all stages in the Houses of the Oireachtas. Once commenced, the Patient Safety (Notifiable Incidents and Open Disclosure) Bill 2019 will require a list of specific serious patient safety inciden

The High Court has dismissed a plaintiff’s medical negligence action against the HSE for alleged failures in diagnosing breast cancer. The plaintiff had originally felt two lumps in her breast but this was diagnosed as a simple cyst in May 2017. However, by October 2017, she maintained that th

Lawyers Dara Purcell, Aoife Kelly-Desmond, Peggy Hughes, Avril Sheridan and Caoimhe Gleeson have been appointed to five health and social care registration boards. Mr Purcell, a qualified solicitor and chartered secretary, has been appointed to the Health and Social Care Professionals Council until