Harney to defend no confidence motion
As Ms Harney and her advisers continued to work on the script last night, it emerged she is likely to focus on her reputation for compassion when responding to the motion.
The motion of no confidence was tabled by the Labour Party just before the weekend, following last week’s revelation that 97 women were to be recalled for surgical review after queries were raised about ultrasound scans carried out on them. In a huge embarrassment to the Health Minister, it emerged both Ms Harney and HSE chief executive Brendan Drumm first learnt about the recall of the 97 women only when a senior official announced it at the health committee meeting last Thursday.
Yesterday, Labour’s health spokeswoman Jan O’Sullivan said the latest disturbing disclosure about up to 15 cancer misdiagnoses at Cork University Hospital had added to the gravity of the situation in the health services.
Following the threat by Fianna Fáil backbencher Ned O’Keeffe that he may defy a three-line whip and vote against the Government, Fine Gael health spokesman James Reilly called on all government TDs to vote with their conscience.
However, Ms Harney is expected to easily survive the vote of confidence notwithstanding possible abstentions or rebellions by Mr O’Keeffe, or Finian McGrath and Jackie Healy-Rae, two of the four Independents who support the Government.
Ms Harney will argue tonight she has put patient concern and safety at the heart of a number of her biggest initiatives, including the national treatment purchase fund; the Medical Council (where she installed a majority of lay members); and her response to both the Neary Report and the hepatitis C report.
Sinn Féin also joined the fray yesterday when it tabled its own motion of no confidence in Ms Harney. The party’s Dáil leader, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said there was no public confidence in Ms Harney, nor any in the management of the health services.
Yesterday, Ms Harney insisted she had acted appropriately in her response to the Portlaoise crisis.
“I have nothing to be afraid of and nothing to be ashamed of. If Dáil Éireann decides to fire me, that’s a different issue,” she said.
On the second day of the debate tomorrow, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is also expected to severely criticise opportunism by Labour.
1. May 2007: Health Minister Mary Harney announces that having received the report on the misdiagnosis of Rebecca O’Malley, she has requested the chief executive of the Health Service Executive (HSE), Prof Brendan Drumm, to instigate a full evaluation, independent of the two hospitals involved (Cork University Hospital and the Mid-West Regional Hospital in Limerick), of all the facts relating to Ms O’Malley’s care by the HSE. The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) announces on May 24 that it is to undertake the review and, in June, it publishes its terms of reference for the inquiry.
2. In addition to investigating the circumstances surrounding the care of Ms O’Malley, 41, the investigation will also examine the provision of pathology services provided by the HSE at Cork University Hospital (CUH) and the symptomatic breast disease services provided by the HSE at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Limerick. The files of an additional 24 patients will be re-examined as part of the review. HIQA hopes to publish the findings of its review, together with recommendations, by the end of this month.
3. August 2007: The Health Service Executive announces a review of pathology services at University College Hospital Galway (UCHG) after two misdiagnosis errors led to an 18-month delay in diagnosing cancer in a 51-year-old Tipperary woman. The misdiagnosis related to a private patient receiving care at Barrington’s Hospital in Limerick. Her tests were handled by UCHG where two different pathologists examined breast tissue and cells from the woman’s breast on two different occasions in 2005 and 2007 and cancer was dismissed on both occasions. When the laboratory was contacted by the woman’s clinician, Prof Rajnish Gupta, in June 2007, an internal recheck was carried out and the error revealed.
The Health Information and Quality Authority is carrying out the review, which began in September and which will include a review of symptomatic breast disease services at UCHG for the period January 1, 2005, to May 31, 2007. HIQA hopes to have completed the review by January and has refused to comment until then. It is not known how many patients are included in the review. Over the weekend it emerged a Finnish consultant pathologist who worked at the Galway laboratory and whose work is part of the HIQA review, subsequently worked at Cork University Hospital.
The HIQA report and its recommendations will be published following completion of the investigation.
4. August 2007: Health Minister Mary Harney announced the need for a review at Barrington’s private hospital in Limerick after concerns were raised about the manner in which 10 breast cancer patients in particular had been treated there. Details of the 10 cases had been furnished to HIQA by Prof Gupta, a cancer specialist in the midwest. It had the cases assessed by two independent specialists who expressed serious concerns about what they found. Breast cancer services remain suspended at Barrington’s pending the outcome of a review of the care given to all patients who attended the symptomatic breast disease service there between September 2003 and August 2007. It is understood the review will include 400 patient files. Since the inquiry was announced it has emerged the Department of Health was aware of concerns about the quality of breast cancer services at Barrington’s as far back as January 2006, some 19 months before it took action. HIQA cannot carry out the review because it has no mandate over private hospitals.
Barrrington’s chose the review team and an interim review was initially promised by October 31. The chair of the inquiry team, Dr Henrietta Campbell, former chief medical officer for Northern Ireland, has since said her target was for the interim review to be completed by the end of the year.
5. August 2007: The HSE announced it was performing a review of the practice of one consultant radiologist within the radiology breast service in the Midland Regional Hospital at Portlaoise. The consultant had been placed on administrative leave. The review involved a re-examination of more than 3,000 mammograms over a four- year period (2003-2007) and almost 600 ultrasounds over a two-year period (2005-2007). By November it emerged nine women who had cancer had incorrectly been given the all-clear. A number of women are still waiting follow-up consultation to determine if anyone else was given a misdiagnosis.
A consultant surgeon at Portlaoise hospital had written to Ms Harney in 2005 expressing concerns about the radiology department.
6. November 2007: It emerges a second review is underway at CUH into the work of a Finnish pathologist who previously worked at UCHG and whose work there is part of a HIQA review of its pathology services. The HSE refuses to confirm the number of cases under review at CUH but confirms some patients have been recalled for follow-up consultation and others have yet to be contacted. A London laboratory is undertaking this review. The pathologist at the centre of the controversy resigned at the end of August after being confronted by hospital management about his work. He had worked at CUH for seven weeks.
Compiled by Catherine Shanahan
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