Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

These reports pertain to the difficulties that have been discussed in the House in recent months. Obviously they are reports into serious problems that must be addressed. If Deputy Kenny is asking me whether I have confidence in the 130,000 people who are trying every day to deliver a health service for a population of 4.2 million in operating theatres and community health settings, who are trying to diagnose and implement treatments, to look after our old people and bring young people into this life and who are trying to serve us to the best of their ability, I consider them to be fine people. I am not in here to criticise any of these people. As for the reports published last week, such reports and examinations into the issues were conducted because problems arose. We are talking about the problems rather than the successes or the day to day work.

Last Wednesday, the Minister for Health and Children published two key reports relating to breast cancer reviews at Portlaoise Hospital. I refer to the Ann Doherty report into the HSE decisions to suspend breast radiology services, to carry out a clinical review of systematic breast radiology services and to place a consultant radiologist on administrative leave and to the John Fitzgerald report into management, governance and communication issues. Both reports contain many critical issues that have been reported on and which must be addressed. I am glad they are being addressed and will be addressed. No one is arguing about the need to address such issues. Two other reports, the Dr. Anne O'Doherty report and the John Bulfin report, also raised issues to be addressed.

However, both of the main reports published by the Minister are critical of aspects of the communication, co-operation and clarity of responsibilities that obtained. These are serious issues which must be dealt with and rectified. The reason for producing the reports was to highlight what went wrong and what must be put right. The Minister said at the Joint Committee on Health and Children last week that she considers the patient to be the absolute priority in events such as this and that everything must be about the patient. Clearly the greatest distress caused in this was to the nine women identified by Dr. Anne O'Doherty's review, who experienced a delay in the diagnosis of cancer. All involved must learn from the mistakes made and ensure the systematic weaknesses of governance, management and communications that were highlighted in this instance are addressed.

The Minister already has welcomed the recommendation from the HSE's board that the chief executive officer is to report to the April meeting on the implementation phase of this report. This is what is important at present. This will include the preparation and implementation of a new serious incident management protocol, which will be a clear process for managing all aspects of a response to any future serious incident similar to this one. In addition, the Minister has asked the board to deal with three other issues, namely, to adopt immediately an interim serious incident protocol, to designate one person immediately at national level to ensure that any future reviews are conducted to the required standard and to engage closely with the issue through its risk management committee until it is satisfied that serious untoward incidents of this nature are being managed to the required standards.

The Secretary General of the Department has been requested by the Minister, in consultation with the Chief Medical Officer, to review and strengthen the procedures within the Department to deal with clinical safety issues to make sure that clinical perspective is brought to all these stages. While many other issues were outlined, these are the main ones.

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