Inquiry call over hospital’s 58,000 unreviewed X-rays

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney will come under pressure in the Dáil to carry out a review of consultants’ work throughout the hospital network in the wake of the disclosure that one of the country’s largest hospitals had backlogs which left almost 58,000 X-rays unreviewed by consultant radiologists.

Tallaght Hospital said two patients – one of whom later died and another who is now undergoing cancer treatment – had their diagnoses delayed as a result of the build-up between 2005 and the end of last year.

Professor Kevin Conlon, chief executive at the south Dublin hospital, said the institution deeply regretted the situation and was working hard to resolve the problem.

“The majority would have been reviewed by a non-radiologist, nevertheless this is totally unacceptable and it arose from systemic and process failures,” he said.

Sinn Féin health spokesman Caoimhghín O Caoláin will be seeking a Dáil debate on the Tallaght Hospital X-ray scandal.

“ After all the promises of better governance and accountability in our hospital network following previous cancer diagnosis scandals, we find that this gross neglect went on from 2005 to the end of 2009,” he said.

“I am calling on Health and Children’s Minister Mary Harney to initiate an urgent review of management and supervision of consultants at Tallaght and throughout the hospital network,” he added.

Fine Gael’s spokesman on health, Dr James Reilly, said: “The volume of tests involved and the period of time involved suggest asevere system failure and it is deeply disturbing that there was no check which picked up on this unacceptable practice over four years.”

Labour’s health spokesperson Jan O’Sullivan said: “We will never know if an earlier diagnosis might have saved the life of the patient who has since died.”

Rebecca O’Malley of Patient Safety Advocate said: “There would appear to have been an extraordinary silence over the past five years among a hospital full of consultants and other medical staff who somehow, incredibly, either failed to notice that X-rays they ordered were not reported on in the appropriate way, or chose to ignore that essential fact.

“I hope in the final analysis that we don’t find out that the professionals involved were more loyal to their institution than their trusting and vulnerable patients.”