HSE admits X-ray alert letters were misaddressed

RED-FACED Health Service Executive (HSE) officials admitted yesterday that letters alerting patients in the north-east about the review of thousands of X-rays and CT scans were misaddressed.

About 6,000 routine chest X-rays and 70 CT scans are being rechecked.

The HSE had engaged a private company to post letters to about 4,500 patients.

The HSE said it was “deeply disappointed” that a small number of letters were misaddressed by the company.

The HSE said it had arranged for letters to be resent to patients yesterday and staff were to retrieve those wrongly addressed.

“Given the issues at hand for the people concerned with this review, the HSE would like to express its sincere apologies for this error,” a statement from the health authority stated.

The HSE decided to look back on all chest X-rays and CT scans examined by a locum consultant radiologist who worked at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda and Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan between August 2006 and August 2007.

A review of the radiologist’s work established that four patients in Our Lady of Lourdes had their cancer diagnosis delayed because an abnormality was not spotted. All of the patients have since died.

There is anger over the length of time it has taken the health authority to contact all those involved and the lack of clinical audit in place at the hospital when the radiologist worked there.

The HSE has appointed a team of radiologists to carry out the review on its behalf.

Sinn Féin Cllr Joe Reilly said one of the 70 patients whose CT scan is being reviewed was angry that the letter he received yesterday from the HSE gave no indication as to when they would get back to him.

“He told me he is concerned because he underwent a number of surgical procedures and thought he was in the clear,” said Mr Reilly.

“To leave patients wondering is another injustice piled upon a mistake,” he said.

A HSE spokesperson stressed yesterday that the health authority was “hopeful” that all the reviews would be completed within the next eight weeks.

“As each CT or X-ray is reviewed we will write back to the individual patient to let them know the outcome of that review,” she said.

“Patients do not have to necessarily have to wait eight weeks — some will hear sooner, but it will take up to eight weeks before we have all of them reviewed,” said the spokesperson.

Drogheda GP, Dr Conor O’Shea, said he only got one call yesterday from a patient who was concerned about the review.

“All things considered, I think the HSE are handling the review reasonably well but the sooner it is finished, the better,” he said.

The health authority has set up a helpline — 1850 241850 for those concerned with the review of X-rays and CT scans.