The target set by the Minister for Health for tackling the backlog of X-rays at Tallaght Hospital in Dublin has been criticised by Fine Gael.
The hospital has been at the centre of controversy this week over leaving thousands of GP referral letters unopened, as well as allowing almost 58,000 X-rays to go unreported by consultant radiologists.
Mary Harney has set a deadline of May to have the backlog of unreported X-rays.
But Fine Gael’s health spokesman Dr James Reilly said the backlog could have tackled within a month if the hospital had been given clear orders to outsource the work.
“The Government is still dragging its heels by setting a May deadline for the X-ray analysis,” he said.
“The X-ray backlog could be resolved within ten days by e-mailing them for analysis to consultants around Ireland, and the UK if necessary.
A caring, concerned administration would resolve the referral letter issue within weeks by ensuring that sufficient staff were put in place to deal with them,” he said.
“The State and its agent Tallaght Hospital have failed their patients. They must act immediately to address that. Only then can we be truly sure there is not another missed diagnosis,” Dr Reilly.
Tallaght Hospital stopped accepting GP referrals to get its outpatient waiting lists under control, an investigation by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) found.
A report published by the CAG last September stated that “in one hospital some clinics were no longer accepting referrals in order to get the outpatient waiting lists under control”.
The report said this “dysfunctional” practice of closing the outpatient appointment book to bring waiting times under control should be prohibited.
It did not say in the report, however, which hospital was involved in this practice, but a spokeswoman for the CAG's office confirmed to The Irish Times last evening that the hospital concerned was Tallaght hospital.