Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue of the typing and issuing of transcripts of X-ray reports. I am responding on behalf of the Minister for Health. It is important to assure people attending the radiology unit at Tallaght Hospital that there is no risk to patient safety. Urgent and prioritised reports in the emergency department and the paediatric radiology unit are produced within 24 hours. Tallaght Hospital has in place a documented clinical governance process for radiologists, the doctors who examine x-rays. Urgent cases and cases in need of time-sensitive clinical decisions are flagged in advance by clinicians for immediate reporting. Critical or urgent findings are immediately brought to the attention of the referring doctors and the clerical staff who transcribe and send the report immediately.

An average of 15,000 reports are typed at Tallaght Hospital each month. Standard non-urgent reports are usually produced within two or three weeks. The number of reports that need to be typed has increased due to initiatives to improve access to imaging. More patients are receiving radiography examinations in Tallaght because of higher productivity and better facilities. For example, a second CT scanner was opened in December 2012. An initiative with Naas General Hospital reduced the MRI waiting list by 16% in 16 weeks. Some 6,000 examinations, or 3.5% of the annual total of 172,000, are currently untyped. Some 3,000 of these untyped reports relate to patients who attended routine outpatient imaging. They have been reported through an initiative with additional consultant resources. The remaining untyped examinations date from 12 February last to the current day. As the standard turnaround time for routine reports is two to three weeks, these tapes are currently delayed by a further two or three weeks.

The radiology department, the diagnostic directorate and the executive team are taking a number of steps to address this issue. Additional clerical support is being provided in the radiology unit to assist with the typing of tapes. It is intended that the backlog will be cleared in approximately five weeks. The hospital has initiated demand management protocols within national guidelines to avoid the need for reports on specific images such as orthopaedics. An integrated voice recognition system that was piloted last year will be introduced from early April. This will eliminate the need to type transcripts for approximately 65% of the radiology workload. It is expected that voice recognition for all reporting in Tallaght will be fully implemented by the first quarter of 2014 as part of the roll-out of the national integrated medical imaging system. This will eliminate the need to transcribe radiology reports.

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