The former Dublin city manager John Fitzgerald has been commissioned by the Health Service Executive to review its handling of the recent Portlaoise hospital breast cancer controversy.
Following a meeting of the HSE board last week it was confirmed "an external independent person" would be engaged to conduct the review. Last night the identity of this person was confirmed as Mr Fitzgerald.
He will look at the HSE's actions from the time it announced at the end of August that thousands of mammograms and ultrasounds at Portlaoise hospital were being reviewed. At the time the HSE said there was "no need for concern" among patients.
It emerged last month, however, that nine women whose mammograms were reviewed had wrongly been given the all-clear for breast cancer. This review of mammograms was carried out by Dr Ann O'Doherty of BreastCheck and Dublin's St Vincent's hospital, and it seemed at that stage the matter was at an end.
However, it was subsequently announced out of the blue at an Oireachtas health committee meeting that a separate review of ultrasounds had begun at Portlaoise hospital - which Dr O'Doherty had advised against - and that it had been decided at that point that 97 women who had had ultrasounds at the hospital needed to be recalled for surgical review.
The news was delivered to the committee by the head of the HSE's national hospitals office John O'Brien, but neither HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm nor the Minister for Health Mary Harney had been told in advance. Neither had the women being recalled.
There was then a flurry of activity to contact the 97 women, and when the HSE began making phone calls, it was decided to first initiate contact with the women whose ultrasounds had been reviewed and who had nothing to worry about.
The whole affair led to the tabling of a motion of no confidence ithe Minister in the Dáil.
Ms Harney requested an urgent report from the HSE on its handling of the affair and Mr Fitzgerald will now compile this report. He will focus on the manner in which the HSE dealt with patients whose files were being reviewed, as well as on the quality of internal communication arrangements within the HSE and communication with the Department of the Health
"He will examine relevant correspondence and documentation relating to the period and conduct interviews with persons as necessary to establish the facts and complete a report for the HSE board," the HSE said.
When all the ultrasounds earmarked for review at Portlaoise were finally looked at, over 100 women were recalled for surgical review and to date it appears nothing serious has been found in any case.
Meanwhile, Dr O'Doherty's report on her review of mammograms at Portlaoise is due to be published shortly, the HSE said.