Barringtons:Barringtons' private hospital in Limerick was told by BreastCheck two years ago that its mammography service would not meet the quality assurance standards required by the national breast cancer screening service, it has emerged.
Letters seen by The Irish Timesshow management at the hospital - where care given to breast cancer patients since September 2003 is now being reviewed - suggested that BreastCheck might use spare capacity at the hospital back in mid-2005.
The manager of the hospital, Denis Cahalane, wrote to Minister for Health Mary Harney with the proposal.
A letter of October 7th, 2005 indicates the hospital was visited by BreastCheck and it was then informed "the radiological resources available to it do not meet the quality assurance criteria of the National Breast Screening Programme and that, consequently, it would not be possible for Barringtons radiology personnel to participate in the screening programme".
The letter, written by the director of BreastCheck to Mr Cahalane, also said while Barringtons had spare capacity in terms of digital imaging mammography services, it was in radiographic terms "a single-handed practice" and this would not meet the quality assurance criteria for the national breast cancer screening programme. Furthermore, the letter noted the necessary resources for multi-disciplinary triple assessment of breast cancer cases were not in place at the hospital.
BreastCheck requires all mammograms to be double read by consultant radiologists with specialist training in reading breast scans. The scans are then discussed by a multi-disciplinary team if there are any concerns about a patient's diagnosis.
However, double reading of mammograms "is not a requirement" for symptomatic breast disease services, the HSE says.
Barringtons offered women mammograms until it was asked by the Department of Health to suspend its treatment of breast cancer patients in August. The request was made after concerns were raised with the Health Information and Quality Authority about the care given to 10 breast cancer patients at the hospital. A review of these cases as well as care given to all patients who attended the hospital's symptomatic breast cancer service since September 2003 was then announced.
Mr Cahalane said last night his hospital endeavoured to work with BreastCheck to find a solution to the lack of a national breast cancer screening service in the midwest region. It was suggested as an interim solution until BreastCheck was rolled out.
"We never suggested we were a fully fledged breast unit, but we certainly have the technology to assist in a breast screening programme," he added.