Crisis talks over X-ray backlog
Tallaght Hospital has admitted to a backlog of 58,000 unreviewed X-rays
Tuesday March 09 2010
Health chiefs are to hold crisis talks with one of the country's largest hospitals over the discovery that almost 58,000 X-rays were not reviewed by consultant radiologists.
An investigation is being launched after Tallaght Hospital said two patients - one of whom later died and another who is now undergoing cancer treatment - had their diagnoses delayed as a result of the build-up between 2005 and the end of last year.
In a statement, the Health Service Executive (HSE) said its national director of quality and clinical care Dr Barry White and Dr Risteard O Laoide, consultant radiologist and recently-appointed national lead for radiology, along with other HSE chiefs, will attend the hospital to oversee the inquiry.
The HSE said it will also launch an independent investigation into the latest controversy to rock the health service.
Professor Kevin Conlon, chief executive at the south Dublin hospital, said the institution deeply regretted the situation and was working hard to resolve the problem.
"The majority would have been reviewed by a non-radiologist, nevertheless this is totally unacceptable and it arose from systemic and process failures," he said.
"The technology now in place is delivering maximum output as staff work longer hours and through into the weekends to clear this backlog."
Prof Conlon said he informed the HSE and the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) as soon as he learned of the problem after his appointment last December.
And the new chief executive revealed he had only just been told about the dead patient, who died at the hospital last summer.
"I was informed of this latter case today and I am pursuing the matter with urgency," he said.
