This article is from page 11 of the 2008-10-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 11 JPG
THE national surgical oncology ad- visor has criticised the media for its coverage of the breast cancer misdi- agnosis in Ennis General Hospital. Professor Arnold Hill, consultant surgeon at Beaumont Hospital, told the annual meeting of the Irish Hos- pital Consultants’ Association — that an excessive media focus on a small number of cases made for “a very difficult environment in which to
practice cancer care.”
The cancer specialist revealed that the best cancer centres had a misdi- agnosis rate of 1.6 per cent. Although the mammogram unit at Ennis Hos- pital is now closed it examined 450 women as recently as 2006.
Other women, like the late Ann Mo- riarty, would have undergone x-rays and women like the late Edel Kelly would have undergone biopsies.
According to Professor Hill, even with a perfect cancer diagnosis sys-
tem approximately 25 women with breast cancer would be misdiagnosed every year in Ireland.
Meanwhile, concerns have also been raised that the HSE will use the findings from the HIQA investiga- tion at Ennis, as ammunition to close the hospital.
“My fear is that the HSE may use this report to downgrade the hospi- tal and implement Hanley,” said Fine Gael TD Pat Breen.
Ennis Hospital Development Com-
mittee chairman Ciaran O’Dea was concerned that the report’s terms of reference made presumptions about the hospital.
“It has not been framed to reassure the people of Clare that the recom- mendations issuing from the review will not further erode the services provided by the Mid Western Hospi- tal in Ennis.
‘In the terms of reference there is an apparent assumption that the level of resourcing 1s adequate.
“We would like them to comment on the level of funding and resoursc- ing in the hospital over the past two decades,” he said.
“We also hope the review team would not be narrow in their focus and take into account historical cir- cumstances and the role of manage- ment and government in creation of the current hospital structures.
“We call on them to use the ability to expand the investigation and where required they will investigate.”