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Harney had Warnings Over Midlands Cancer Services since 2005
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Today’s Irish Times has the report (it was always going to happen really, sadly) on the letter sent to Mary Harney’s office in 2005 by a Consultant Peter Naughton who said that radiology in the Midlands Regional Hospital was being provided by those who “had no expertise in the area”.
The ’smoking gun’ as it were only underlines that there were not an entire hospital of inept people working in Portlaoise there was a few. There were others who felt it was not good enough and when it was reported and referred by Harney to the HSE, as she admitted last night, there was a total of sweet F.A done about it.
Harney as a Minister looks and sounds like one on the brink of moving out. The impression is there that this job is being done not by a Minister looking to finish the job she started but one who has been dealt a series of blows by a department that can hardly operate, a HSE that can hardly manage its budgets, consultants that are intent of fighting with her and a party that is on the verge of extinction. This is an aside to this story not some causal explanation but the Portlaoise debacel will not help.
Dear all,
All the scandal centred around Breast services has opened my eyes. It made me realise that doctors do not support their colleagues anymore. The incisive remarks by the surgeon{pun not intended, worries me. If he thought the service was bad why did he continue sending his patients to the said department?Even more worrying is the fact that The Faculty of Radiologists has not made any statement supporting one of their own nor any other breast radiologist came forward with statistics of errors in Mammography. If this is the situation wonder how many young radiologists will choice Breast Radiology as their superspeciality?
As Mr/Dr X wrote in his book, Non- national consultants have a higher rate of being targeted!
I have made up my mind, I am going to train to be a GP!
What is wrong with locum consultants providing services in hospitals? More than 50% of the hospitals –Dublin and peripheral hospitals depend on these locums to continue patient care. Without locum doctors the waiting lists will spiral out of control. There aren’t enough doctors in the country to provide care. By personal experience I can assure that many a time the review breast clinics and cancer services are run solely by junior doctors, There appears to be acute shortage of Radiologists, not just in Ireland but all over the world. With defensive medicine more and more doctors are losing clinical skills and depend on investigations and imaging for diagnosis, management and treatment. Every clinical colleague out there is over cautious, fear litigation, leading to requesting number of unnecessary examinations. Every doctor in the country is aware of that, so why the whole drama about breast service?
Every hospital manager, nursing managers or network managers appear to forget the basic concept of a review. If there is problem, identify it , solve it internally to avoid public panic and stress. Instead the highly qualified, over paid administrators did everything the wrong way. Worse they are actually defending it. Even the press with their so-called health correspondent’s are writing reams of papers without actually researching. He says, she says and I say is not ideal journalism. Why bother when you can sit in the offices and click- click away , cause a sensation which sells – not the whole truth.
Yours,
I was appalled at the statement made by the surgeon.If the service in Portlaoise Hospital was not good enough for his wife{they are rich anyway}, how did he think it was good enough to send his patients for the mammogram in that hospital for almost two years? Do patients deserve this kind of attitude by “top” surgeon {as Ms Harney refers him?}