Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

Why does one side of the health service not know what the other side is doing? On 7 November last, for example, The Irish Times reported that the BreastCheck service double reads mammograms for safety. One day earlier the HSE had stated double reading is not a requirement at symptomatic breast disease centres. This kind of information fuels confusion and fear, and it is not a one-off example.

The waters were also muddied very much in this area by the Taoiseach incorrectly defining triple assessment in the Dáil. He stated, on 7 November, that "Triple assessment only applies where cancer is identified" but we know that this is incorrect. It is a diagnostic system to determine treatment for the patient. It arises once a patient has shown symptoms of breast disease, but it is incorrect to state that it takes place only after the patient has already been identified as having cancer. Clearly, in both St. James's Hospital and St. Vincent's Hospital, triple assessment is a means of arriving at a diagnosis and this has been confirmed by the Irish Cancer Society.

After more than ten years in power there is a sense of being out of touch with what is happening and with the reality of cancer services in this country because so many incorrect and misleading statements have been made. Mysteriously, the expert who could make the public see precisely what the Taoiseach is doing was stood down by the national broadcaster from a television programme dealing with the issue. It is amazing that the person who is the most angry and lucid critic of the Department's approach to cancer services should be removed from the panel of such a programme in the interests of balance.

The Minister said she welcomes people who want to point out what is really happening in the health service. I am not suggesting that she has direct influence but a number of incidents have arisen that have caused concern. There is also concern about the Medical Practitioners Act 2007 that, far from encouraging an atmosphere of disclosure and clinicians stating what they are finding in the system, there is a belief that it is a case of put up or shut up.