Decision to grant Belfast neurologist Dr Michael Watt voluntary removal from medical register is quashed

​Mr Justice McAlinden held that a Medical Practitioners Tribunal (MPT) had no jurisdiction to deal with Dr Michael Watt’s application because fitness to practise proceedings were not properly underway.

​In a withering assessment, he described the alleged circumstances surrounding the decision taken in private as “frankly shocking”.

​The verdict came in a challenge by some who were treated by the medic at the centre of Northern Ireland’s biggest ever patient recall.

​In October 2021 the former Royal Victoria Hospital consultant was allowed a Voluntary Erasure (VE) from the register.

​It meant he would not face a public hearing about any fitness to practise issues.

​Former patients Danielle O’Neill and Michael McHugh both issued judicial review proceedings against the MPT.

​The court heard Dr Watt appeared to have received a “get out of jail free card”.

​Dessie Hutton KC, for Ms O’Neill, said his client was among a “legion” of alleged malpractice victims denied public scrutiny of the clinical care they received.

​“They got notification of a decision taken during a secret or private hearing,” he submitted.

​“It’s something of an understatement to say that decision was met with dismay throughout this jurisdiction. Outrage might be a more appropriate term to categorise reaction.

“In the context of this extraordinary recall, with extraordinary consequences, and where accountability and transparency was expected, this decision looks like something of a ‘get out of jail free card’ for the doctor concerned,” counsel argued.

During a series of exchanges, Mr Justice McAlinden expressed alarm at how the issue was dealt with.

“At its most charitable view this is a gross misunderstanding of the statutory framework; at its least charitable interpretation it’s a bit of a fix up,” he commented.

“This is something that somebody with a GCSE in law should know.”