HSE letters sent to dead woman

THE FAMILY of a woman who died last year have received two letters and a phone call from the Health Service Executive (HSE) telling them scans carried out on their late mother were to be reviewed, a Fine Gael TD has said.

Drogheda-based deputy Fergus O'Dowd said a distressed constituent contacted him about the letters to her mother, which arrived in recent days.

The woman was one of 5,000 patients who attended three hospitals in the northeast who have been contacted to say X-rays and scans need to be re-examined.

Mr O'Dowd said the family of the woman, who had attended Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, were very upset by the mistake. "This brings back all the trauma of the death, and what compounds it is that the hospital where the woman passed away does not have the records right and it genuinely thought she had not died," he said.

Mr O'Dowd said the HSE should attempt to get the scans rechecked "as soon as possible" to relieve those awaiting results.

Stephen Mulvaney, hospital networks manager of HSE in the northeast, apologised to the affected families for the mix up.