THE HEALTH Service Executive (HSE) has been rapped on the knuckles by Minister for Health Mary Harney over its failure to speedily implement the findings of a number of reports into patient safety issues.
In a letter to the HSE last week, Ms Harney said this failure was a matter of major concern to her.
"The HSE's progress in implementing the specific recommendations of investigations into a number of very serious incidents is a matter of enormous concern to me. I believe there is no more serious obligation on the HSE than to learn from mistakes and speedily and comprehensively implement the recommendations to which it has committed to implement," she wrote.
Her comments are believed to refer to the HSE's failure to implement in full the findings of inquiries into the misdiagnosis of cancer patients such as Rebecca O'Malley and the findings of an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death in 2007 of Tania McCabe after giving birth to twins at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
Ms Harney's comments are set out in a letter to the HSE on December 9th after she approved the executive's 2009 service plan. In the correspondence, Ms Harney said she was also extremely anxious to see further tangible evidence of improvements in hospital hygiene.
She said she wished to see colonoscopies performed within one month of patients being referred for these crucial diagnostic tests for bowel cancer. She wants monthly updates from the HSE next year on its progress in meeting this target.
Figures produced by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) recently indicated some patients can be waiting up to eight months for these tests and this can result in a delayed cancer diagnosis, which happened in the case of the late Susie Long.
She said the HSE needs to give consideration to imposing "financial penalties" on hospitals that are failing to refer patients to the NTPF, which organises private treatment for public patients waiting more than three months for treatment.
Ms Harney also noted in her letter that while there would be limits on expenditure for discretionary medical cards next year, this discretion should allow for the traditional regard to be given to cases where an applicant is terminally ill.
Fine Gael health spokesman Dr James Reilly recently claimed that the HSE had refused to issue medical cards to two terminally ill patients in Dublin.
The Minister also warned the HSE to stay within budget next year and to take action early if there was any divergence from planned expenditure.