Portlaoise:Not all of the 3,000 mammograms carried out at the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise which are now the subject of an independent review, were read by the same consultant radiologist.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) would not confirm this directly yesterday but it said the review "involves all mammograms carried out in the period from November 2003 to August 2007 inclusive, irrespective of who carried them out".
Some of the mammograms were read or assessed by other consultants, and not just the consultant radiologist who has been put on administrative leave.
However the bulk of them are understood to have been read by the consultant sent on leave.
That consultant was sent on leave at the end of August, when the review was announced, and it was indicated at the time that women whose mammograms were being reviewed had nothing to worry about because the consultant had essentially been over cautious.
The HSE described the problem at the time as one of "over-diagnosis" of breast cancer, with some patients being sent for extra tests unnecessarily.
The problem was brought to the attention of the hospital's management team by the director of nursing at the hospital, the Dáil was told yesterday. It was told the nurse raised concerns about 10 "false positives".
The HSE confirmed last night that only one consultant has been sent on administrative leave, pending the outcome of the review of mammograms at the hospital.
To date it has emerged that eight women, whose mammograms were read at the hospital, were given the all-clear when in fact they had breast cancer. Six other women are awaiting the results of further tests at Dublin's St Vincent's hospital. The results of these tests will not be available until next week.
Meanwhile it was confirmed yesterday that there are no nationally agreed standards for image quality from radiology equipment such as mammography machines. Dr David O'Keeffe, a consultant radiologist at Galway's University College Hospital and president of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, said these standards were "a glaring requirement".
He said there were discussions on standards with the Department of Health since 2002 but none had been agreed. He suggested they had not been agreed because if they were, older equipment in some hospitals would have to be replaced and this would have budgetary consequences.
Michelle Monaghan, chairwoman of Siptu's national executive of radiographers and radiation therapists, told RTÉ's Morning Ireland, that up to half the hospitals in the country were using radiology equipment that was more than 15 years old. Images would be poorer from older machines.
Dr Tony Holohan, deputy chief medical officer at the Department of Health, said inspections of radiology equipment take place each year to ensure quality and safety.
He also said there was a responsibility on practitioners not to use equipment if they felt it was unsafe.
It emerged earlier this week that the department of radiology at Portlaoise hospital wrote to the manager of the hospital last December saying the mammography equipment there was old and there was a risk its poorer images could result in tumours being missed, leaving the hospital open to litigation. It also raised concern that film for the machine was at times affected by dirt from the darkroom.
The HSE insisted that despite these concerns it was satisfied the machine at Portlaoise operated within normal quality assurance standards.