Helpline in place for breast cancer review patients

A SPECIALIST helpline has been established for GPs dealing with women seeking a review of their breast cancer results.

Chairwoman of Europa Donna Ireland, Christine Murphy-Whyte, said GPs should be able to reassure most women about their test results.

Today, a Europa Donna conference in Dublin will examine the rollout of the State’s eight designated specialist centres and discuss issues around follow-up.

Ms Murphy-Whyte said the deaths of two women wrongly given the all-clear for breast cancer by Ennis General Hospital showed how dangerous the disease could be and how important it was not to cut corners with treatment.

Any women evaluated through a hospital breast clinic in the past two years (after September 2006) is advised to attend their GP if they have concerns. This does not include patients seen through the BreastCheck programme.

Europa Donna Ireland was one of number of concerned groups that met the director of the National Cancer Control Programme, Prof Tom Keane, this week.

While the hospital checks will be free, women who do not have a medical card and attend their GP as a private patient will have to pay for the consultation.

The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has said that no women who is eligible for the re-assessment scheme should face a direct charge. The organisation is to meet with the Health Service Executive (HSE) next week as it is concerned thousands of patients could come forward.

Ms Murphy-Whyte said the re-assessment scheme would be closely monitored by the National Cancer Control Programme.

“A database will be established so it will be known who has been referred through their GP to one of the specialist centres and what the outcome was,” she pointed out.

Chief executive of the Irish Cancer Society (ICS), John McCormack, said the re-assessment scheme was really for women seen in the country’s smaller hospitals, and who might have concerns.

“This scheme is really to reassure women, not to find cancer, and restore trust and confidence in the State’s breast cancer services,” he said.

Asked about women being asked to pay to see their GP, Mr McCormack said the society would not like to see a situation where a woman could not access the re-referral process because of an inability to pay.

Mr McCormack said the ICS had asked the HSE to develop specific measures to respond to the women who were fearful that something might have been missed.

“You can’t put out a message that there may be more cases of misdiagnoses because of the way we ran our hospitals and breast cancer services and then just leave it out there,” he said.

Patient advocate Rebecca O’Malley said the last two weeks have shown just how hard it is for the ordinary person to get their concerns heard.

“The impression is that the HSE really does not want to listen,” she said.

Ms O’Malley, who went public after being wrongly given the all-clear for breast cancer, said the HSE was responding to the concern out there now because it had to.

“The line of defence kept on going to a more senior level over the last two weeks and in the end the authority’s chief executive, Prof Brendan Drumm, admitted that there might be more cases of a misdiagnosis of breast cancer across Ireland,” said Ms O’Malley.

“If there were concerns about the quality of care within small centres and the HSE asked that they be closed down, there must have been an overlap period where people slipped through the net.”

However, Ms O’Malley was disappointed that the Ennis General Hospital inquiry was concentrating on services and not on the care provided to Ann Moriarty and Edel Kelly, who died after being given the all-clear for breast cancer.

“I still believe that every serious incident or death as a result of a medical error should be independently investigated,” she said.

europadonnaireland.ie or telephone [phone].

breastcheck.ie or freefone 1800 45 45 55.