Conduct Of The South Glamorgan Health Authority

EDM number 124 in 1993-94, proposed by Rhodri Morgan on 29/11/1993.

That this House deplores the mishandling by the South Glamorgan Health Authority, under the chairmanship of Ian Grist, of its dispute with one of its leading orthopaedic surgeons, Ian Mackie, Director of the Welsh Office-funded Treatment Centre for joint replacement surgery at the Prince of Wales Orthopaedic Hospital, Rhydlafar, Cardiff; notes that Mr Mackie has been at home, suspended on full pay for almost six months, while the Health Authority investigates in an exceedingly dilatory manner its allegations of gross professional and personal misconduct against him, without any sign so far of solid evidence emerging against him; notes that the original cause of the dispute was Mr Mackie's refusal to use the Zimmer CPT artificial hip joint, designated as the sole hip replacement joint to be used in South Glamorgan hospitals; is appalled that the clinical freedom of an expert surgeon was being removed by bureaucratic interference in this way; is concerned that the Zimmer CPT hip joint has had a wholly unacceptable failure rate in excess of 10 per cent. in the first few months of its use in South Glamorgan, thereby confirming that Mr Mackie's fears were totally justified; and therefore calls on the Secretary of State for Wales to investigate the conduct of South Glamorgan Health Authority in this matter.

This motion has been signed by a total of 35 MPs.