Patient needs swept aside

THE needs of the patients potentially affected by a cancer misdiagnosis were somehow swept aside in the flurry of activity that followed the decision to set up a review of breast diagnostic services at the Midlands Regional Hospital in Portlaoise.

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.