Retired Cavan GP accused of misconduct over Covid-19 social media posts

Seán McCárthaigh

A medical inquiry has heard that a retired Cavan GP accused of professional misconduct over his social media posts during the Covid-19 pandemic suggested that doctors following public health guidelines had a motivation “other than to protect the public from harm.”

An expert witness told the Medical Council’s fitness-to-practise committee that one post by the GP, Michael McConville, which claimed a HSE grant for doctors represented “blood money”, was critical of his peers “in a way that was untrue and unfair".

In a post on his Twitter (now X) account on January 4, 2021, Dr McConville said he had no idea what the HSE Covid grant of €3,400 was for.

The tweet continued: “Needless to say I’ll not take this blood money. In my opinion it’s a thank you to my profession for keeping their mouths shut.”

However, an expert witness called by the Medical Council, Nick Flynn, said Dr McConville’s claim that he did not know what the grant was for was “almost unbelievable” and “disingenuous.”

Dr Flynn – a GP with MyCorkGP in Holyhill, Cork – said he understood “blood money” as a reference to something paid for murder, which he regarded as “very emotive language.”

Dr McConville (76), who retired from his medical practice in Cavan Town two years ago, is accused of five counts of professional misconduct over 19 tweets and one retweet on his Twitter account between January 2021 and February 2022.

The Medical Council claims that the posts, which criticised PCR testing, vaccines, and face masks, as well as promoted ivermectin as a treatment for Covid-19 and questioned the existence of the pandemic itself, undermined public health guidelines at the time.

Counsel for the Medical Council, Neasa Bird BL, said they were also not in accordance with the Guide to Professional Conduct and Ethics for Registered Medical Practitioners.

Dr McConville is not attending the inquiry after walking out of its opening day on Tuesday after making a lengthy submission in which he accused the Medical Council of targeting “lawful free speech.”

The GP also maintained that he had “no case to answer.”

On the second day of the hearing on Wednesday, Dr Flynn said he believed the GP’s comments were “disgraceful and dishonourable” and/or represented a serious falling short of standards expected of doctors, which constituted professional misconduct.

The witness claimed Dr McConville was selective in the medical studies he quoted, which challenged public health guidelines.

Dr Flynn told the inquiry that second-guessing the advice and guidance of an expert body like the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) with selective studies was “incorrect.”

He said NPHET was a group of 58 medical and scientific experts who analysed and distilled volumes of rapidly evolving studies and data into recommendations that would benefit the public health response in Ireland.

He acknowledged that doctors were on “a huge learning curve” during the pandemic.

While GPs are entitled to their opinion, Dr Flynn said they should be respectful of colleagues and not undermine public confidence in the profession.

He highlighted a tweet by Dr McConville in May 2021 about Covid tests and the 14-day infection lifespan of the Sars Cov 2 virus, which stated: “If you’re not dead or in ICU by then, you’re healed.”

Dr Flynn said the comment created fear, as well as being factually incorrect.

He claimed a series of tweets by Dr McConville, which questioned the benefit of wearing facemasks, emboldened people who did not want to follow the advice of NPHET about wearing such equipment.

Dr Flynn said the GP was also promoting the use of ivermectin as a treatment for Covid at a time when it was not licensed for use outside of controlled clinical trials.

The witness said an explanation offered by Dr McConville for his use of the phrase “blood money”, which he linked to blood tests conducted by big pharmaceutical companies, was “convoluted.”

Asked if he had a conflict of interest, as suggested by Dr McConville, as founder of Sure Rapid Testing - a company which conducted Covid-19 tests - Dr Flynn replied that it was very selective to pick such a role when he was also a practising GP.

Dr Flynn acknowledged that he is not an expert in epidemiology, virology or public health but stressed he was an expert in general practice and how doctors responded to the clinical environment they faced during the pandemic.

In earlier evidence, the Medical Council’s head of communications, Alan Gallagher, told the inquiry that he had drawn the attention of Dr McConville’s tweets to other officials in his role of monitoring media, including social media.

Dr McConville had claimed the previous day that the individual who had made the complaint about him was not being called as a witness.

However, Mr Gallagher said he had never made any complaint to the Medical Council about any doctor.

The hearing was adjourned to a future date still to be fixed for closing submissions.

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