HSE downplays skin cancer backlog fears

The HSE has downplayed fears that skin cancer patients were caught up in the administrative debacle that kept GPs in the South-East in the dark about how patients were faring.

A backlog of more than 3,000 letters — which had been dictated but not typed up — did not delay treatment for urgent cases such as patients with skin cancer, according to Richard Dooley, hospital network manager for the South-East hospital group.

Last week, GPs received a letter from one of two dermatologists working in the dermatology service at Waterford Regional Hospital saying that the department was at crisis point and a critical incident was waiting to happen.

It also emerged that approximately 3,100 letters had not been sent out to GPs by the hospital to keep them abreast of patient care. The HSE said the situation had arisen primarily because of insufficient administrative staff to deal with the up to 350 letters that need to be issued on a weekly basis by the dermatology service.

A spokeswoman for the HSE said the backlog extended to January 2013. However, she said it did not impact on patient treatment.

“As part of the system in the hospital, urgent cases are red-flagged at the point of dictation, so there was no delay in treatment for these patients,” she said.

The HSE said the letters caught up in the backlog were routine and fell broadly into two categories: to brief the GP that a patient had been discharged, or that they were receiving further treatment.

The statement said patients in need of ongoing care were already in receipt of this and urgent cases were fast-tracked.

The HSE said the delays related “to the issuing of letters and not to patients commencing treatment”. Letters in relation to urgent cases had been sent out. Additional resources have now been put in place in order to clear the backlog, which Mr Dooley anticipates will be done by April 11.

At yesterday’s HSE South regional health forum, Mr Dooley said they were hoping to recruit a third dermatologist. He also stressed that a full dermatology service would continue at the hospital amid fears only urgent cases would be seen.

The South-East regional dermatology service based at WRH sees in excess of 9,000 patients a year at outpatient clinics, as well as providing day treatment at WRH.

* If you have been affected by the WRH letter backlog, contact [e-mail]