An Irish Medical Council delegation has visited the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) campus in Bahrain, following criticism from human rights groups about alleged abuses in the country’s medical facilities.
The inspection took place on Monday and Tuesday, but concerns have been expressed that the visiting team would be given a sanitised view of facilities. Ceartas, the Irish Lawyers for Human Rights organisation, has called for the campus to be denied accreditation because of allegations of torture and discrimination against medics by state forces.
The college has stressed that it meets international standards and has raised human rights issues with Bahraini government officials.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Ceartas co-director Dr Gearóid Ó Cuinn said that safeguards in the Irish education system, including the freedom to speak out and criticise RCSI-affiliated hospitals, were “non-existent” in Bahrain. “Simply tweeting such criticism will get you arrested. Unless clear steps have been taken to avoid censorship, this evaluation risks becoming an exercise in ‘hear no evil, see no evil’,” Mr Ó Cuinn said.
“From an Irish law perspective, I would like to see the council recognise the overlap of human rights abuses and the medical council’s remit. We would urge them to live up to their legal obligations by factoring Irish human-rights standards in their accreditation.”
The Irish Medical Council “has never dealt with Bahrain and has yet to demonstrate, in a transparent manner, that it has used appropriate expertise to deal with such a repressive environment”, he added.
Public protests
Last month a number of Bahraini human rights groups wrote to the Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection, outlining conditions in the country following public protests against the Bahraini regime in 2011.
Both Ceartas and the Front Line Defenders organisation have raised the situation of the women’s rights activist Ghada Jamsheer, imprisoned in September for her public criticisms of the King Hamad University Hospital, a facility affiliated to the RCSI.
The Bahrain campus is in the country’s capital, Manama, and for accreditation purposes falls within Irish jurisdiction as it is owned by its RCSI parent in Dublin, Ceartas said.
Since popular pro-democracy protests by the country’s Shia Muslim majority in 2011 – Bahrain is controlled by a Sunni royal family – there has been international criticism over claims of abuses of medical staff and facilities.
Arrests and alleged torture
More than 70 medical personnel were arrested and allegedly tortured. Many were later charged and convicted of various offences, including Dr Ali Al Ekri, a senior consultant paediatric orthopaedic surgeon, who had previously trained and worked in Dublin.
It is understood that the Bahrain inspection team has been provided with a report by Ceartas outlining its concerns.
Neither the medical council nor the college would comment on this week’s inspection ahead of the resultant report. Previously, however, the college said senior members of its staff had met government officials to voice concerns on human rights issues and call for the release of medical prisoners.
“Our primary responsibility is to contribute by providing a high-quality education based on internationally recognised ethical principles in medical and health-science education in a safe and supportive environment,” it said.
Accreditation from the medical council is based on the World Federation for Medical Education standards, and the RCSI “is confident that it meets these standards”.