Urology inquiry: 'Fear' prevented colleague challenging Aidan O'Brien

Aidan O'Brien worked at the Southern Health Trust from 1992 until his retirement in July 2020

A consultant urologist has said he personally regretted not recognising that a deeper look was required in to the work of a fellow doctor.

Mark Haynes said fear prevented him from tackling Aidan O'Brien personally.

He was giving evidence to a urology inquiry examining the work of Mr O'Brien, a consultant urologist.

The inquiry is also examining the Southern Health and Social Care Trust's handling of urology services before May 2020.

Mr Haynes took up a post as consultant urological surgeon at Craigavon Area Hospital in 2014, joining a team which included Mr O'Brien.

In October 2017, Mr Haynes took up a managerial position of Associate Medical Director within surgery and elective care, which covered urology.

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Counsel for the inquiry, Martin Wolfe KC, said that through Mr Haynes' evidence the inquiry wished to obtain "a better sense of the clinical and administrative issues in instants of concern relating to Mr O'Brien and the way he practised which lead eventually to the events of 2020 - the early alert and the announcement of this inquiry".

Mr Haynes told the inquiry that he was a colleague of Mr O'Brien and aware of how he worked. He said he was also aware that "he was a challenge to challenge".

"I also had an awareness of his personal connections with members of his family within the legal profession, his personal connections with the chair of the board and the rumour mill had told me that a previous AMD (Associate Medical Director) had been accused of bullying when trying to tackle Mr O'Brien.

"So I guess the answer to why didn't I personally tackle him is because I had to work within a team with him, essentially it was a fear thing," he said.

Urology consultant Aidan O'Brien worked at Craigavon Area Hospital before his retirement in July 2020

Mr Haynes told the inquiry he didn't want to find himself in a difficult working relationship as a result of things he had heard on the rumour mill or grapevine rather than anything documented.

"I should have tackled him personally but I was coming in late to this with a many-year history of other people attempting to tackle it to no success and it becoming part of normal working arrangements for him," he said.

Counsel for the inquiry spoke about urology services in Northern Ireland and specifically in the southern trust, saying "the resources to meet the demand is wholly inadequate". Mr Haynes agreed.

Mr Wolfe, the counsel for the inquiry, said that the inquiry "may well understand that the pressure created by the absence of resources to deal with demand" but that "issues [in relation to Mr O'Brien] were there to be discovered and could have been discovered with relative ease".

Mr Haynes again agreed and said: "I personally regret not recognising that a deeper look into Mr O'Brien's practice was required at the time of the MHPS (Maintaining High Professional Standards) investigation being instigated.

"What was looked into were the issues that had been identified but we didn't proactively look for other things".

The inquiry continues.