The Chair of the Letterkenny Hospital Campaign Group has called on Health Minister Stephen Donnelly to meet with patients after it was revealed that hundreds of patients were potentially given incorrect scan results.
The Irish Times reported today that a review into the matter has been ordered after one third of a newly-hired radiology locum’s work contained errors.
The locum consultant’s contract was terminated within 10 days as a result of concerns raised about the standard of their work, according to Saolta University Health Care group.
It’s believed there was an error rate in his scans of 37 percent, accounting for potentially over 100 erroneous results being given to patients in just one week.
The Chair of the Letterkenny Hospital Campaign Group, Mary T Sweeney, has sought an urgent meeting with Minister Donnelly and Saolta management.
“This is a scandal of enormous proportions”, Ms Sweeny said in a statement this evening.
“There are a number of central questions here. Firstly I want to commend the senior consultant who blew the whistle on this issue. I understand a senior consultant raised concerns initially but was ignored by management before taking it upon himself to do a review of 238 X-rays and 66 ultrasounds, where he discovered a 37% error rate. Management have a lot of explaining to do over why they ignored this consultant. The second key question for Saolta to answer is whether or not these patients affected have been contacted to inform them of the errors.”
Ms Sweeney continued: “Our hospital campaign Committee will be holding an emergency meeting tonight to digest the latest revelations. Our group is made up of more than a hundred locals, patients and current and former hospital staff from across the County. We need answers to our questions. I have also reached out to Charlie McConalogue in the hopes that the hospital campaign group can have an urgent meeting with Minister Donnelly whenever he decides to visit Letterkenny University Hospital.”
“The investigation into this matter needs to be transparent, and swift. Patients’ lives may hang in the balance. As management conducts their investigation I would ask that interim reports be produced throughout the process so that appropriate and prompt and potentially life saving reviews may be taken by the hospital, as the investigation goes on. Letterkenny hospital, staff and patients have been neglected for too long, starved of investment, resources and staffing levels. We need a review also of the recruitment processes which led to this disaster in the first place”, concluded Ms Sweeney. “We need a hospital we can all have confidence in, both staff and patients.”
