Patients say oversight crucial for hospitals

PATIENTS groups last night called for the urgent establishment of improved quality control systems for hospitals after the second announcement in two days that breast cancer services at two separate facilities have been suspended.

Diagnostic services at the private Barrington’s Hospital in Limerick and the public Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise have both been put on hold while patients’ files are checked for possible mistakes in test results.

The Irish Cancer Society (ICS) said two sets of guidelines had been drawn up for handling suspected breast cancer cases, in 2000 and again earlier this year, but hospitals and the Health Service Executive (HSE) had largely failed to act on them.

“We are asking the HSE to set out a timetable for the implementation of these standards without delay,” said ICS chief executive, John McCormack. “Breast disease is being treated in many places where there is no system of care and this is entirely unacceptable.”

Stephen McMahon of the Irish Patients’ Association backed the call for tighter regulation of hospital practices. “There is an urgent need to implement a process for a mandatory standard quality assurance programme for all public and private hospitals in order for them to be licensed to treat patients,” he said.

Health Minister Mary Harney said yesterday she had long been concerned about the lack of licensing and accreditation of private hospitals and had appointed a commission to draw up a proposal which was due to be completed in January.

However, opposition parties said Government inaction was the cause of the problem. Labour’s acting leader Liz McManus said the Government was to blame for pushing patients into unregulated private facilities because of their failure to provide adequate public breast cancer screening, diagnostic and treatment services.

Calling for the establishment of a Patient Safety Authority, she said: “The Government has failed spectacularly in making any real progress with the cancer strategy.

That strategy would provide for centres of excellence where multi-discipline care would be provided for cancer patients. It would also provide for high quality screening.”

Fine Gael also lay blame at the feet of the blamed the current difficulties on Government: failures in delivering cancer services. “This incident is yet another manifestation of an ailing health service and the abject failure of Fianna Fáil to deliver effective cancer services,” said deputy health spokesman Brian Hayes.

Although a private operation, Barrington’s also receives public funding as it is a referral hospital for the National Treatment Purchase Fund. The minister is to meet with hospital management on Monday to plan the review of patients’ files there. The HSE, meanwhile, said it intended to have the Portlaoise review completed within a month.