REACTION:A WOMAN whose breast cancer diagnosis was delayed by 18 months as a result of errors in the laboratory at University College Hospital Galway (UCHG) said yesterday the mistakes had been devastating for her and her family.
The 51-year-old Tipperary woman, who remains anonymous, issued a statement through her solicitor saying she has undergone intensive radiotherapy and chemotherapy in the past year.
"While I have had to adjust to my changed life, my treatment continues and I look with hope to the future," she said.
She added that she was relieved the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) investigation into pathology services at UCHG was completed and the findings published. "It now remains for the recommendations to be implemented in full, for the safety and wellbeing of all," she said.
If the recommendations were "left to gather dust, what has happened to me will have been in vain," she added.
"In total, my treatment was delayed for 18 months during which time my cancer was allowed to progress. The result of these errors and failures has been devastating for me and my family," she said.
The woman first attended Barrington's private hospital in Limerick when she felt a breast lump in 2005 and it sent her biopsies to UCHG for analysis.
The role of Barrington's however was not looked at in the HIQA report as HIQA has no authority over private facilities. The Tipperary woman said legislation is needed urgently to allow for the regulation of the private healthcare industry here.
A separate review of care provided to breast cancer patients at Barrington's hospital was ordered by the Department of Health and was published in April. It raised concerns about the way several patients were treated there.
Meanwhile, political reaction to yesterday's HIQA report was swift. Fine Gael's health spokesman Dr James Reilly said it showed patients continued to be put at risk by flawed practices in the health service. He accused the Government of failing to implement the recommendations of the Lynott report from 2002 on the employment of locums.
Labour's health spokeswoman Jan O'Sullivan said more effective procedures governing the recruitment of locums and the verification of their qualifications and records were clearly needed.
Minister for Health Mary Harney said the doctor who had made the large number of errors at UCHG has been referred to the Medical Council. She said the system's over-reliance on locums, and the procedures used in recruiting them, is now being addressed by the HSE.
The HSE West, which runs UCHG, said initiatives to improve the quality of the hospital's laboratory diagnostic service have been undertaken over the last year.
And it said a number of areas in the laboratory have now obtained external accreditation or have applied for accreditation.
Bridget Howley, the hospital's manager said: "The hospital accepts the report's recommendations, and we are in the process of implementing its recommendations".