Portlaoise hospital scandal accelerates

RTE has seen a letter from nearly a year ago from the radiology department to Midlands Regional Hospital management warning of the risk of missed diagnoses of breast cancer due to the out-of-date equipment that the hospital was using for screening — X-ray images on film when state of the art is digital imaging that is clearer and can be easily sent anywhere in the world for expert opinions (there’s probably some place in Bangalore that specialises in reading digital mammographs).   This comes on top of news that the hospital began rechecking screening results when it became concerned with how a particular doctor was reading them, so now it has to be sorted out who’s to blame.  And what exactly all those layers of HSE management actually do.  And how much longer Mary Harney and Brendan Drumm can, or will be allowed to, stay in their jobs.