Tallaght Hospital staff 'raised x-ray concerns more than 40 times'

It is being claimed today that staff at Tallaght Hospital in Dublin had raised red flags about a delay in reporting x-rays over the past number of years.

The head of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (ICHA) says that more than 40 letters were written to hospital management about the inadequate number of consultant radiologists at Tallaght.

While the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has also confirmed it was contacted by a GP who had concerns over X-rays at Tallaght last April - and contacted hospital management as far back as May of last year.

It emerged last night that almost 58,000 x-rays were not read by a consultant radiologist over a five-year period.

It led to delayed diagnoses for two patients, one of whom has since died, a second is undergoing cancer treatment.

Donal Duffy of the IHCA says in his view a lack of staff was to blame. He is warning that there are quite possibly similar delays in other parts of the health service.