Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I also want to refer to the review published yesterday by the HSE of the 46,000 radiology scans carried out at University Hospital Kerry in Tralee. The report has found that 11 patients had their diagnosis of cancer delayed and that four of them have since passed away. Some of the 11 patients received the report by taxi, which is not an appropriate or patient-centred way to deliver a report to any victim. Our thoughts are with the families, in particular, at this very difficult time and all those affected by the scandal. While I welcome the publication of the report, there are a number of outstanding issues on which we require clarification which I hope the Tánaiste will be in a position to provide.

First, less than two pages of the report deal with recommendations to prevent a similar situation from arising in the future. When asked yesterday by my colleague, Councillor Toiréasa Ferris, what was the timescale for implementation of the recommendations, hospital management could not give her an answer. Unless management accept its failings and responsibilities and puts measures in place to address what happened, it can and could happen again. The concerns about misdiagnoses and hospital scans were being raised by hospital staff and GPs and it seems that the appropriate action was not taken until a later stage. Therefore, I want to know what are the HSE and the Minister going to do about it? Will a timeline for implementation of the recommendations be produced and will it be published?

The matter of most concern is that, over a year after the issue first came to light, not only are guidelines on the volume of work radiologists should be undertaking not in place but the process to develop them does not seem to have even started. What specifically is being done about this and will the guidelines be produced without delay? That is absolutely crucial because the workload of the consultant in question was a key contributory factor in patients receiving a misdiagnosis or there being a delayed diagnosis. That issue needs to be addressed urgently.

The report acknowledges that four people died as a result of receiving a misdiagnosis or there being a delayed diagnosis, but there is a fifth person whose family believe she passed away as a result of the same factor. She had been told that her case was part of the review in February, but she heard nothing after that point. Unfortunately, she has since passed away. Will the Tánaiste give an assurance that the hospital will engage with her family in order that they can receives the answers they are so desperately seeking?

There is a real possibility that people may have to go through the courts to get justice in what clearly are cases of medical negligence. We already know that one application has been lodged. Will the Tánaiste give us an assurance that that will not happen and that the hospital and the HSE will engage with victims and families to ensure they do not have to through the rigmarole of the convoluted legal process to get justice? In some cases people are terminally ill. The issue is time sensitive and we need to ensure action will be taken immediately, something which has not happened heretofore.

See this speech in context