One of the top executives in the Health Service Executive (HSE) in the West would not clarify whether University Hospital Galway (UHG) failed to seek a reference from a junior doctor’s previous hospital where he was let go due to concerns over his medical skills.
At a Regional Health Forum West meeting, Councillor Padraig Conneely again raised the issue of Dr Omar Hassan, who was taken off on-call duty at Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise days after his appointment before he took up a position with UHG.
Cllr Conneely claimed at last month’s meeting that UHG had given a glowing reference to Dr Hassan and he went on to work in two other public hospitals and a number of private facilities between 2012 and 2014, despite “not knowing his ankle from his elbow”.
The native of Sudan was found guilty of 28 counts of poor professional performance and six counts of professional misconduct in late January. Sanctions have yet to be handed down. His medical registration had been suspended before the hearing.
Cllr Conneely asked about a report prepared by the HSE for Health Minister Leo Varadkar on how the medical recruitment procedures had led to the junior doctor being employed successively by the HSE.
The Irish Times claimed the report found that UHG did not seek a reference from Portlaoise for Dr Hassan, who instead provided three references unrelated to his employment in the midlands.
The organisation planned to work with recruitment managers to set up a standard policy regarding references and Garda vetting for all non-consultant hospital doctors, according to the document.
Cllr Conneely said at the last meeting the Chief Officer for Galway Mayo Roscommon community services within the Saolta Hospital Group, Tony Canavan, did not give information about references for the senior house office.
“You said you didn’t know. I can’t get answers here. I have to read about them in the newspaper. It says you got no references at all.”
Mr Canavan said the issue was outside the remit of the Forum.
The Fine Gael Councillor said he took it by that answer that the HSE had not sought references.
“Outside the remit? It’s in the national interest. You have a doctor working in a public hospital who didn’t know his ankle from his elbow.”
UHG consultant Odhran Murray told the medical council inquiry that Dr Hassan mistook an x-ray of an ankle for an image of an elbow during a training session with colleagues.
Mr Murray also recalled an instance where Dr Hassan recontaminated his hands by touching a non-sterile area while scrubbing up, at odds with basic medical procedures.
Consultant orthopaedic surgeon Aiden Devitt stated that two colleagues had checked whether Dr Hassan was actually a registered medical doctor because he was “so far off the scale” in terms of his competencies.
Mr Devitt told Dr Hassan who was defending himself: “If you pulled someone off the street they would make a better fist of it than you did.”
The inquiry heard that Dr Hassan kept attempting to insert a tube into a patient’s arm even when unable to find a vein.
Colleagues expressed concern that Hassan did not appear to be aware of the importance of ruling out non-accidental injuries in children, and had suggested that a young child was a “fake” patient.
He was described as being “aggressive” and “intimidating” with one mother, while he caused a burn injury to another patient during surgery.
Cllr Conneely said he would submit questions on the issue at the next meeting.
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