A CONSULTANT radiologist who was placed on administrative leave following the controversy over mammograms at the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise was last night invited back to work by the Health Service Executive (HSE).
It is understood that Dr Visa Moodley was last night asked to contact the HSE with a view to arranging her return to work.
The move came as the Department of Health and the HSE were arranging to publish today a series of reports into the breast cancer controversy in Portloaise.
The Irish Times understands that one of these reports will criticise the HSE over a lack of corporate governance.
Dr Moodley has said that she was placed on administrative leave last August by the HSE following complaints from some other healthcare staff.
The HSE subsequently ended the provision of breast radiology services at Portlaoise and established a review of breast radiology diagnoses which found that cancer had not been detected in a number of women.
Dr Moodley has maintained that she was distressed by reports that she was responsible for failing to identify a number of cases of cancer after mammography examinations. Dr Moodley has said that she was confident that a review would show that she did not fail in her duty of care to the women concerned.
One of the reports before Minister for Health Mary Harney was drawn up by former Dublin city manager John Fitzgerald into the HSE's management of events following the decision to suspend breast radiology services at the Portlaoise hospital.
A report drawn up following a review of more than 3,000 mammograms read at the Portlaoise hospital which was carried out by Dr Ann O'Doherty of BreastCheck and Dublin's St Vincent's Hospital, will also be released today.
A separate report drawn up by a senior HSE official into circumstances that led to the decisions by the HSE to suspend breast radiology services at the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise in August 2007 will also be published.
The Irish Times understands the Fitzgerald report will criticise a deficit in corporate governance in the HSE. However, sources said it was unlikely that any individual would be publicly criticised in the report.
The Fitzgerald report recommends that in future information on reviews should not be released while they are still ongoing. Sources said the report would cite "media hysteria" regarding the Portlaoise controversy.
The Fitzgerald report was commissioned by the board of the HSE before Christmas on foot of a request from Ms Harney. The review was ordered by the Minister after the HSE failed to inform her about a retrospective study of breast ultrasounds at the hospital which resulted in the recall of 97 patients for surgical review.
The news was made public by the then head of the HSE's national hospitals office, John O'Brien, at an Oireachtas health committee.
Ms Harney and HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm said they had only heard of the review just hours before it was announced.
The 97 patients involved had not been informed. Most of the 97 women underwent their surgical review at a special clinic set up in Portlaoise the following weekend.