THE cancer misdiagnosis rate at a Portlaoise hospital was a “very significant rate of misdiagnosis” according to the clinician who reviewed more than 3,000 mammograms originally read at the hospital.

THE Health Service Executive has become an “organisational shambles” and “completely dysfunctional”, the opposition said last night.

TWO issues were at the heart of concerns raised about the mammograms taken at Portlaoise Hospital — the equipment used and the staff who used it.

Two reports into the cancer misdiagnosis scandal at Portlaoise Hospital will be published tomorrow, the Taoiseach confirmed tonight.

TODAY we report on a self-serving collusion between the Department of Health and the HSE to control information about the extent of a cancer scandal.

ONE of the reports on the cancer screening crisis at Portlaoise General Hospital will be considered by the board of the Health Service Executive (HSE) today.

The Opposition today rounded on the Government after it emerged a report probing the misdiagnoses of cancer patients must receive legal clearance before publication.

AN emotional Mary Harney last night declared: “Quitting is a shortcut to failure, and I don’t accept failure.”

More than 60 women in the Midlands have today been attending a special breast cancer clinic over fears they were wrongly given the all-clear.

THE HSE yesterday admitted that they did not make it clear before Thursday that a dual review was taking place into Portlaoise breast services, blaming journalists and politicians for not asking specific questions about ultrasounds.

The Minister for Health Mary Harney will face a 'no confidence' vote over the crisis in cancer services as a fifth inquiry into failings in patient care began tonight.

THE head of the HSE, Professor Brendan Drumm, accepted yesterday that what happened to the women wrongly diagnosed in Portlaoise was appalling and had undermined public confidence in breast cancer services.

FULL details emerged yesterday of the sequence of events that led to the suspension of breast radiography services in Portlaoise last August and the placing of a consultant radiologist on administrative leave.

THE success of the breast screening programme won’t be known until 2010, but early indications are that it is improving the survival rate of hundreds of women with the disease.