SAFETY CHECK: Cuts in health service must undergo patient safety analysis

ANY financial cuts in the health service must go through a patient safety analysis before they are implemented, patient advocate Rebecca O’Malley has urged.

The Tipperary mother-of-three became an advocate for better standards of patient safety and a more quality-assured service after being wrongly given the all-clear for breast cancer by a Cork Hospital.

Ms O’Malley, who underwent a mastectomy in London in 2006 after developing invasive breast cancer, is to raise her concerns about the Health Service Executive’s e1 billion budget shortfall with HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm and Health Minister Mary Harney.