Patients ‘expect too much’ from cancer tests

DOCTORS only had themselves to blame for not making it clear that breast cancer can still be missed — even with the best systems in place, a leading member of the National Cancer Control Programme has claimed.

Prof Arnold Hill, the programme’s adviser on surgical oncology, said a problem in the breast cancer service was that people expected a perfect service.

Even in a massive oncology centre with teams of the very best doctors in the world, mistakes would be made in diagnosing cancer, Prof Hill declared at the annual general meeting of the Irish Hospital Consultants (IHCA) in Cork at the weekend.

“When you go to all the best multidisciplinary teams with the very best doctors, 1.6% of cancers will be missed,” he pointed out.

Every year in Ireland, he said, there would be 25 missed diagnosis.

Prof Hill, a leading breast cancer consultant at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, said doctors were entitled to be human and make mistakes. He believed, however, that it was the medical profession’s fault that the message about true misdiagnosis rates, even with the best systems in place, was not being put across.

Prof Hill said it had taken time to appoint breast radiologists, to build operating theatres and put necessary structures in place.

But he questioned whether a doctor would want to be appointed as a breast radiologist in the current climate.

“I think we need to protect ourselves more and let the public have realistic expectations as to what appropriate good cancer care is,” he said.

Prof Hill also pointed out that Beaumont had only two patients who had come forward following the offer of a recheck of breast cancer tests.

The recheck was offered after it was revealed that two women died after being wrongly given the all-clear at Ennis General Hospital.

Prof Hill said that the situation was a vote of confidence as the recheck request check was out of 8,000 patients in two years.

Meanwhile, the chief executive of the Health Service Executive (HSE), Prof Brendan Drumm, told members of the IHCA that senior clinicians needed to be leaders and decision makers in the health service.

Prof Drumm also felt that consultants had been unfairly blamed in the past because they had been working in systems that could never provide the quality of care now expected.

Dr Paul Oslizlok, president of the IHCA, warned against cuts in health spending in the budget.

“You cannot postpone a heart attach. Therefore, expenditure on health should not be deferred either,” he said.