Health officials are due to meet early next week to discuss the scope of inquiries into the treatment of a Co Tipperary woman whose breast cancer diagnosis was delayed by 18 months due to pathology test errors.
Legal advice is still being taken by the Department of Health, following this week's decision by Minister for Health Mary Harney to order a prompt and wide-ranging investigation into the case. The department says it is also speaking to the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) about the issue.
Earlier this week, Ms Harney asked her officials to examine the most appropriate and effective mechanism for the investigation, including the option of a statutory inquiry which would require Government approval.
This followed confirmation by University College Hospital Galway (UCHG) that it had offered a full public apology to a 51-year-old woman, who was falsely given the all-clear for breast cancer as a result of two biopsies incorrectly analysed in September 2005 and June 2006 at the hospital's laboratory.
The hospital is conducting an internal review of similar tests analysed during corresponding dates, and is checking other tests if requested through a telephone helpline which it set up this week. Some 35 calls have been received to date, it said yesterday.
The hospital also asked HIQA last month to undertake an independent review of the hospital's pathology services.
However, Ms Harney is anxious the review should extend to all aspects of the woman's care, whereas HIQA is currently constrained from investigating the private hospital where the woman was a patient.
The Minister is abroad and has not responded directly to criticisms of the diagnosis system made by Prof Rajnish Gupta, director of cancer care services for the Health Service Executive (HSE) in the mid-west region.
Prof Gupta said the woman, who is undergoing chemotherapy in the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick, may not have needed such intensive treatment if she had received a proper assessment in 2005 by a multi- disciplinary team at a regional specialist breast unit.
It was "indefensible" that Ireland had no national breast screening programme, Prof Gupta said.
A spokeswoman for the Minister said Ms Harney acknowledged the challenge which cancer posed and had asked the HSE to prepare a needs assessment.
