The Chief Executive of the Health Service Executive (HSE) has described the situation at the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise where seven women were misdiagnosed after breast screening as appalling.
Professer Brendan Drumm told RTE's This Weekprogramme, that the HSE had inherited the system at Portlaoise and had tried to change it. However, he said that this change was being obstructed by the public and other interest groups.
Seven women who had undergone breast cancer screening at the hospital were initially given the all-clear, but have since been told, following a review of their cases, that they have breast cancer.
The HSE, which runs the hospital, on Friday apologised to the women for the delay in their diagnosis.
The women's scans were among thousands reviewed by St Vincent's hospital, Dublin, in conjunction with BreastCheck, following the decision to send a consultant radiologist on administrative leave at the end of August after concerns were raised about the doctor's reading of mammograms.
The HSE said at that time that 3,000 mammograms and 2,500 ultrasounds on breast cancer patients who attended the Portlaoise hospital since November 2003 would be reviewed.
It said 2,900 mammograms had been reviewed to date and confirmed that as of now 45 women had been called back for further investigation and of these seven had been diagnosed with breast cancer. The seven have been contacted.
Speaking today, Prof Drumm said some of Ireland's cancer systems do not provide quality care and "the system in Portlaoise was totally unfair to the women who use it" and to the doctors that work there.
He said the irony was that despite efforts to change the system there were "marches on the streets in local communities saying we dare not touch their cancer services as part of a transformation programme and this week we face into a Portlaoise situation where we are being blamed for not having changed the system".
He said the HSE was in the midst of a major transformation process, where cancer services have been withdrawn in many hospitals, and where those services will be centralised at eight sites.
Prof Drumm said the transformation was ongoing and succeeding.