A LEADING patient group warned Health Minister Mary Harney that Tallaght Hospital was a crisis waiting to happen as early as 2007.

TÁNAISTE Mary Coughlan caused uproar in the Dáil yesterday when she accused the opposition of indulging in “political opportunism” over the Tallaght Hospital X-ray scandal.

Embattled Health Minister Mary Harney, who is in the middle of a St Patrick’s Day mission to New Zealand, has said that Tallaght Hospital chiefs gave her assurances no letters remain unopened.

The Government says it has yet to establish all the facts in the x-ray scandal at Tallaght Hospital in Dublin.

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney will come under pressure in the Dáil to carry out a review of consultants’ work throughout the hospital network in the wake of the disclosure that one of the country’s largest hospitals had backlogs which left almost 58,000 X-rays unreviewed by consultant radiologists.