The Government is expected to announce details next week of a compensation scheme for up to 250 women who had their wombs or ovaries unnecessarily removed at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
The women, many of whose medical records are missing, could be entitled to compensation of between €60,000 and €380,000.
The details of the redress scheme are due to be discussed at next Wednesday's Cabinet meeting, The Irish Timeshas learned.
The compensation scheme is aimed at victims of the former obstetrician Michael Neary and is based on a model drawn up by Judge Maureen Harding Clark, who conducted the Lourdes Hospital Inquiry into the high rate of Caesarean hysterectomies carried out at the hospital between 1974 and 1998.
The Minister for Health Mary Harney is scheduled to meet Patient Focus - the representative group for women victims of medical misconduct - next Tuesday to discuss the details of the compensation scheme in advance of the Cabinet meeting.
The Government held talks with various groups on the redress scheme in recent weeks, including the Medical Missionaries of Mary, who ran the hospital during the 1970s and 1980s, and medical insurers.
The Taoiseach had signalled previously that the State would not pay the full cost of the redress scheme and that it might be shared out between a range of bodies.
The compensation scheme is expected to be made open to more than 100 women who had their wombs unnecessarily removed, and dozens of others who underwent other unnecessary gynaecological procedures, such as having their ovaries removed. It may also include women whose babies may have died as a result of unnecessary gynaecological procedures.
Many victims have been unable to go to court over their injuries due to a combination of missing medical records or legal restrictions relating to the statute of limitations.
All applicants for compensation will be required to have a medical report stating that their procedures were unnecessary. However, an exception is expected to be made for more than 40 women whose medical records are missing.
While at least 150 women who had their wombs or other body parts removed have been in contact with Patient Focus, the group says it believes up to 100 other women may also be eligible for compensation.
Patient Focus spokeswoman Sheila O'Connor said yesterday that she welcomed signs that the redress scheme was finally being established after years of lobbying.
