Deadlines set for the completion of an inquiry into the care given to breast cancer patients at Barringtons' private hospital in Limerick will not now be met, it has emerged.
The inquiry into care given to the patients over close to a four year period was announced in August and the inquiry team was due to have furnished an interim report by last Wednesday but this did not happen.
It has now been confirmed that the team to conduct the inquiry hasn't even yet been finalised.
Terms of reference for the inquiry seen by The Irish Timesstate that an interim report was to have been provided by October 31st and the entire review of files of breast cancer patients who presented at the hospital since September 2003 was to be completed by the end of this month.
The chair of the inquiry team, Dr Henrietta Campbell, former chief medical officer for Northern Ireland, confirmed yesterday her target now was for the review to be completed by the end of the year.
She said final details of who will be included in the inquiry team are to be sorted in coming days and an interim report would then be sent to the Department of Health and the hospital. This would detail the processes to be followed by the inquiry team rather than the outcome of the inquiry, she said.
But she said the inquiry had already commenced. Consent is being sought from women who attended the hospital to have their files reviewed.
The terms of reference for the review state the inquiry team should examine patient files to identify and prioritise which, if any, of the women who attended the hospital may need further diagnostic or therapeutic interventions.
They also say the team should report immediately to the hospital and to the Minister for Health Mary Harney if co-operation is withheld from the review team by any person.
Those already selected to assist Dr Campbell on the inquiry team include Dr Robin Wilson, consultant radiologist, King's College Foundation Trust and Royal College of Radiologists in the UK; Dr Gerard Boran, dean of the Faculty of Pathology, Royal College of Physicians of Ireland; Dr Fidelma Flanagan, consultant radiologist, BreastCheck; and Dr Christine McMaster, specialist registrar, public health medicine, Eastern Health and Social Services Board of Northern Ireland.
The team is also to include two specialists in breast disease pathology and a consultant with expertise in symptomatic breast disease surgery. These have yet to be identified.
The need for an inquiry at Barringtons was announced by Ms Harney at the end of August after concerns were raised about the manner in which 10 breast cancer patients in particular had been treated there. Details of the 10 cases had been furnished to the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) by a cancer specialist in the midwest. It had the cases assessed by two independent specialists who expressed serious concerns about what they found.
The Department of Health then asked Barringtons to stop treating breast cancer patients and breast cancer services remain suspended. Since the inquiry was announced it has emerged the department was aware of concerns about the quality of breast cancer services at Barringtons as far back as January 2006, some 19 months before it took action.