Ahern admits cancer reports reveal ‘critical issues’

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern has admitted the reports into the cancer misdiagnosis crisis at Portlaoise Hospital revealed “critical issues” that had to be addressed.

However, he defended the Health Service Executive against claims that the failures highlighted in the reports were symptomatic of wider problems throughout the organisation.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny yesterday described the HSE as a “bloated, bureaucratic monster” which had managed to weaken the health system instead of improve its efficiency.

He told the Dáil the public no longer had any confidence in the organisation, particularly after the three reports published last week. The reports revealed serious failures of management in the incident that left over 2000 women in fear when it emerged there were doubts over the mammograms which cleared them of breast cancer.

Nine women were subsequently informed they had been mistakenly cleared and needed to begin treatment for cancer, in two cases almost three years after they should have been diagnosed.

“When you strip away the words about systematic weaknesses, they show clearly an organisation which is bloated, over-centralised and which is disconnected from the patients it is supposed to serve,” Mr Kenny said.

Mr Ahern acknowledged there were criticisms in the reports, continuing: “I am glad to see they are being addressed.” He later added, however, that the problems were local to Portlaoise. “This wasn’t happening in the centralised office of the HSE. These were happening on the ground,” he said.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said the Taoiseach was suffering from “a bad dose of BSE — Blame Somebody Else”. Referring to the absence of Health Minister Mary Harney from the Dáil, he said: “We need a minister for health like Noel Browne who has a passion for public health and doesn’t see medicine as a business opportunity.”

Mr Gilmore also asked the Taoiseach if he had asked Ms Harney and her predecessor, Micheal Martin, to consider their positions in the wake of the reports. Mr Ahern said he had spoken with the ministers but he did not indicate the content of their discussions.