Patient needs swept aside
This was reflected in a number of findings of the Fitzgerald Report, which examined the management of events from the time breast radiology services were suspended at the MRHP and a review of breast services began. In all 3,037 mammograms in respect of 2,150 patients, and 648 ultrasounds in respect of 607 patients were clinically reviewed, and the report’s author, John Fitzgerald, felt that, in keeping with best practice, all patients whose cases were being reviewed should have been written to at the beginning of the process. This did not happen.
Worse, women were kept in the dark about the ultrasound review until a HSE official unexpectedly dropped a bombshell at an Oireachtas Health Committee meeting — that 97 patients who had undergone ultrasounds now faced a review of their diagnosis. To top off the extreme distress the cancer care crisis had caused for thousands of women, a sense of urgency in dealing with its fallout was not apparent until the public outcry which followed revelations about the ultrasound review.
The whole sorry saga was compounded by a dismal failure in communications, governance and management within the Health Service Executive, and very poor communications channels between the HSE and the Department of Health.
The report does not pull any punches in its criticism of the manner in which the review process was handled and in its criticism of the HSE. However, its failure to name names leaves one wondering if any heads will roll as a result of this whole debacle.
