Reilly calls on HSE to clarify reports of more misdiagnoses

Other hospitals:The Health Service Executive has been urged to clarify further reports of misdiagnosed cancer patients at two of the country's biggest teaching hospitals.

Fine Gael health spokesman Dr James Reilly said the HSE needed to show more urgency in reassuring patients who had tests carried out at University College Hospital Galway (UCHG) and Cork University Hospital (CUH).

The concerns relate to a locum consultant pathologist who was forced to resign from CUH at the request of hospital management following a review of tests carried out at a laboratory in the hospital. He had previously worked at UCHG. The pathologist, who is a foreign national, only worked at CUH for seven weeks from July 2nd to August 20th.

The review is being carried out by an accredited UK laboratory on behalf of the hospital.

It has been reported that 15 of 166 patients whose cases were reviewed at the hospital were wrongly given the all-clear.

A spokeswoman for HSE South said the hospitals would not be commenting on numbers until the review is complete.

However, in a statement, the HSE admitted that some patients were called back for further tests as a result of the review and received a follow-up consultation from a specialist clinician.

It also said that the review is not complete and some patients, who have not been contacted yet, might need a follow up.

The work of the same pathologist is part of a review into the misdiagnosis of a Co Tipperary woman who was falsely given the all-clear for breast cancer as a result of two biopsies incorrectly analysed in September 2005 and June 2006 at UCHG.

It is being carried out by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa).

Hiqa is also carrying out a review into the case of Rebecca O'Malley, a 41-year-old mother of three, who was misdiagnosed at CUH. Her misdiagnosis led to a 14-month delay in treatment. It is also examining breast cancer services at the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick.

A Hiqa spokesman said the report into her misdiagnosis is imminent and should be made public before the end of the year, while the review at UCHG will be available early in the new year.

Dr Reilly, a former president of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), said there was a need to reassure patients at both hospitals. "I am calling on the HSE to clarify the status of the reports regarding these two hospitals and for the Government to show more urgency in reassuring the public about the health service," he said.

The president of the IMO, Dr Paula Gilvarry, was severely critical of the HSE for its delay in informing patients of a potential misdiagnosis. She described the handling of the cases of 97 women who have been recalled for tests as "appalling".

"I do know that the way the whole system has been handled from beginning to end has been dreadful . . . I think that the HSE as a whole is failing patients," she told RTÉ's This Week programme.

Dr Gilvarry said there was "serious faults" in the running of the HSE and a lack of communication from top to bottom.

She said the report by Judge Maureen Harding Clarke into medical practices at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda recommended that clinicians be more involved in management and that resources should be ringfenced for clinical audits.

"Those things haven't come to pass," she said.