Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste for his response. I appreciate he may not be fully up to speed with the independent review published in August and its recommendation that there should be a statewide review to ensure Letterkenny is not an outlier. Will the Tánaiste, as a GP, read that report because it is absolutely shocking? People lost their lives. The Tánaiste knows that endometrial cancer, if detected and treated in proper time, is not life-threatening or life-ending. In these cases, however, it is clear from the review, which Letterkenny University Hospital and Saolta accept, women lost their lives directly as a consequence of the failure of the treatment in the hospital. Not only that, the numbers are staggering: 41 out of 130 cases were delayed diagnosis while one in five, or 25 or 26, had serious consequences for their health. For some, that consequence was the loss of their life.

What Saolta and the hospital did was flawed from the very start. There was a review in 2018 by the National Treatment Purchase Fund, which made ten recommendations. There was no evidence that any of its recommendations was implemented. There is a lack of confidence in the service. That is why there is a demand for a proper independent review into this and to widen it beyond endometrial cancer.

I am asking the Tánaiste to take a personal interest in this as well as talking to the Minister.

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