The chief executive of the Health Service Executive (HSE), Prof Brendan Drumm, has accepted that the cancer misdiagnosis crisis at the Midland Regional Hospital has undermined confidence in the system.
Prof Drumm was speaking this afternoon after he briefed members of the Oireachtas on the issue.
HSE chief, Prof Brendan Drumm
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, he said: "What we've experienced in Portlaoise would justifiably undermine confidence of women in our systems. What we will be doing over the next 24 to 48 hours is identifying again a list of centres across the country that we at this present time are willing to stand over in terms of the best possible service we can give at this point."
He said the centres would all have multidisciplinary teams dealing with women referred with breast lumps or other symptoms.
He said the reading of mammograms at those centres would be done the same way as it was done internationally. "It will be done by a radiologist in those multidisciplinary teams who has full training in mammography and also with the input of a surgeon into that whole process."
Asked whether all mammograms would be "double-read" by two radiologists, Prof Drumm said double reading was a process only carried out in certain situations, such as in the State-funded Breastcheck screening service.
"What you are doing with Breastcheck is you are trying to screen for cancers where women have no symptoms, no lump, and therefore of course it has to be extremely carefully assessed. You have absolutely nothing to focus on. And that's why double-reading is done in that situation.
"Normally, anywhere in the world, where people present with symptoms, doing the mammography is only one part of a multiteam approach. So it's only one test of what should be more than one."
The HSE chief said someone presenting with symptoms should be dealt with by a multidisciplinary team with only one person necessary to read the mammogram, but also a surgeon and possibly a pathology input, depending on whether a biopsy was necessary.
Prof Drumm said the HSE had withdrawn services from 13 centres in the past, which had been in place before the HSE was established.
"What we are doing at this point in time is going back on each of the centres that's now in operation and getting every one of them . . . to confirm that the multidisciplinary team approach is being provided, so that we can again go out to the public and say 'this is the list'.
"If one of those centres comes back to us and says they are not 100 per cent happy that they have that competency, then we will identify that to the public as well."
The HSE chief said some of the planned centres of excellence are already in place but he said "they need to be built further". No services for breast cancer care would be withdrawn until these centres were working properly, he said.
But Fine Gael health spokesman Dr James Reilly was unconvinced by Prof Drumm's assurances and said public confidence must be restored in the health service.
Dr Reilly said: "I felt I was living in a different world than the one Prof Drumm lives in. "We're living in a world where breast cancer services are in chaos we have cutbacks impacting on patient care."
He said tonight he would support the proposed structure of eight centres of excellence for cancer treatment if they were shown to provide a better standard of care.
" Let's wait and see when they are up and running if they are delivering. I believe people will vote with their feet and go to centre of excellence if they believe that is the best treatment for themselves and their family," Dr Reilly said.
He added that what people in Sligo and other areas were concerned about was the removal of existing local cancer services "
before the service that is to replace it is up and running. The concern at the moment is that they are going to lose their current service on a "promise of some nirvana some time in the distant future," he said. A report into the crisis at the Portlaoise hospital, which resulted in eight women being diagnosed with breast cancer who had previously been given the all-clear, would be ready within the next 10 days.