There’ll be more cancer mistakes, warns Drumm

THE chief executive of the HSE believes tragic cases of misdiagnosis, like the one which lead to the death of Ann Moriarty, will continue to occur if all eight centres of cancer care excellence aren’t fully up and running.

Ms Moriarty died earlier this year after her local hospital in Ennis failed twice to diagnose her breast cancer. A further misdiagnosis was made at St James’s Hospital, Dublin.

Professor Brendan Drumm acknowledged it was very difficult for Ms Moriarty’s husband, Karl, and their 13-year-old son, to come to terms with the tragedy.

“You can see a man who’s devastated by what’s happened,” he said.

He added he was prepared to meet Mr Moriarty to discuss the issue and the grieving husband had every entitlement to seek an inquiry through the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA).

“Canada has huge trouble with misdiagnosis. No country in the world is without it. It’s a huge issue all over the world. “It (misdiagnosis) is going to continue to happen without centres of excellence,” said Prof Drumm.

Meanwhile, the professor told a meeting of the HSE South Forum in Cork he intends to roll out more cancer services, including setting up rapid access clinics for people at risk of lung or prostate cancer.

He told public representatives at the meeting that the MRSA superbug was not a hospital cleanliness problem per say, but rather a problem generated by patients taking too many antibiotics and not looking after their own personal hygiene.

Prof Drumm pointed out that the levels of MRSA were very low in Nordic countries, because people there didn’t overuse antibiotics.

“If we could afford it, I’d be on the TV every night telling patients to ask if antibiotics prescribed by GPs were really necessary. We have to remain focussed on that campaign. It’s a huge challenge which will take decades to solve, rather than having an overnight solution,” he said.

He said he was amazed so many people had backed pharmacists when the HSE had sought to limit payments to them.

The HSE chief executive said the health service wasn’t getting value for money and what it would save from pharmacists would go directly to front-line services.

He also said he wanted to get more doctors and nurses involved in planning future services.

Commenting on the economic downturn, he prophesied a difficult year ahead for the health service. However, he said management would have to ensure maximum efficiencies with the money provided by government.