Harney’s absence during crisis ‘adds to information vacuum’

THE absence from the country of Health Minister Mary Harney is only “adding to the information vacuum” surrounding unread X-rays and GP referral letters in Tallaght, and possibly other hospitals.

Pressure is growing on the minister to cut short her 15-day trip to New Zealand as Fine Gael said the scandal of unread X-rays at Tallaght may have occurred elsewhere.

The opposition health spokesperson, James Reilly, said: “The CEO of each hospital in Ireland must now make a public statement confirming there are no X-rays unreported by consultant radiologists at each hospital.”

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has asked all hospitals around the country to show that they do not have similar problems to Tallaght where 58,000 X-rays remained unread by consultant radiologists. Two patients whose X-rays were unread had a delay in their cancer diagnosis, one of whom has since died.

As the scandal unfolds, Ms Harney will take part in St Patrick’s Day celebrations in Auckland today where she will participate in a parade and attend a banquet along with the New Zealand Prime Minister, John Key and his wife, Bronagh, whose parents are fromArmagh.

Ms Harney’s itinerary for this evening says: “The Prime Minister will speak for five minutes and propose a toast to St Patrick. The minister to respond with an equal duration speech and propose a toast to the Irish and the friends of the Irish in New Zealand.”

It says: “The audience will be a cross-section of the local community, predominantly with Irish connections and many leaders in their fields of endeavour”.

Ms Harney remained silent on the Tallaght Hospital controversy yesterday, after facing calls from the opposition and within Fianna Fáil to return home to deal with the crisis.

She is due to spend at least a week more in New Zealand, where she is accompanied by her husband and three staff on an official trip being funded by the taxpayer.

The New Zealand Herald reported yesterday: “It’s a brave politician who traipses halfway round the world while her political opponents are calling for her head and her job could be up for grabs in an upcoming Cabinet reshuffle. But Irish Minister Mary Harney is no stranger to controversy.”

The paper said: “Irish papers have labelled her visit to New Zealand a ‘five-star junket’ and displayed photographs of their health minister basking in the Auckland sunshine while a scandal rages back home.”

But the paper says it hopes Ms Harney stays around “long enough to impress upon Prime Minister John Key and his colleagues a different message — that they should lead from the topif they want to make big cuts to public spending in the up-coming May 20 budget”.

Patients around the country face an anxious wait to find out whether X-rays remained unread in other hospitals.

Mr Reilly said this information must come to light as quickly as possible: “The patients of these hospitals are entitled to know whether their X-rays have been read by the appropriate specialist,” he said.