Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise a HSE report into colonoscopy screening services at Wexford General Hospital. The report concerns the recall of patients who were treated by a consultant referred to as "clinician Y". The recall was instigated on foot of two cases of cancer being detected in October 2014 in patients who had recently undergone a colonoscopy but had not been diagnosed. The report found a higher than acceptable rate of interval cancers in the cohort of patients screened by clinician Y. What this presents in non-HSE management speak is a shocking scenario. The report found that a recall of 615 patients found 13 possible missed cancers. Six of the cases concerned patients in Wexford and seven involved patients in Carlow and Kilkenny. Of the 13 cases identified, it has been discovered that one man died before the recall took place. We can only send our sympathies to his family and loved ones this afternoon and indeed to all those affected by this turn of events.

Cancer screening programmes like this one are valuable. They can and do save lives and it is essential that they enjoy public confidence. There is always the possibility of human error in anything, including medical diagnosis. That is possible but this scenario goes way beyond that. Missed diagnosis on this scale reveals potential systemic and institutionalised problems concerning bowel screening in a hospital serving much of the south east. What we need are assurances that this will not and cannot happen again. We all want and need citizens to have confidence in the screening programmes, which are crucial for early diagnosis of life-threatening diseases that can be treated or indeed cured if detected. Events like this one in Wexford General Hospital do not help that cause. They reveal a catastrophic series of errors. What citizens deserve are answers. I listened to Dr. Orla Healy on "Morning Ireland" on my way in this morning. She spoke about key performance indicators, audits and local governance structures. This is all very fine but none of it provides citizens with the answers they want. How did this happen? They want to know why it took so long to rectify and recognise the issues involved and, above all, they want to know who is responsible. Reports report, and God knows we have had lots of reports about the health service, but what we need to know is who is accountable in this instance and where the bucks stops.

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