Sir, – Before passing judgment on HSE director general Tony O’Brien in relation to the cervical cancer controversy, one should scrutinise the structure of the organisation which is viewable on the HSE website.
There are no fewer than 17 national directors or heads of function reporting directly to the DG, an impossible situation for any one person.
One of the 17 is described as the Deputy DG with no specific function. The national director of the National Cancer Control Programme is one of the others.
Such an organisation could not possibly operate unless there was some delegation of responsibility in certain areas. What needs to be established in the present situation is whether the director general was even aware of the decision involved not to tell the women of the false negative tests, whether he had delegated responsibility in this area to the national director of the National Cancer Control Programme. There must be a file in existence which would have recorded a decision of such magnitude, recording also the recommendations which led to it. – Yours, etc,
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PATRICK HOWARD,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.