SEVERAL LETTERS to patients informing them their chest X-rays and CT scans are to be reviewed by the Health Service Executive (HSE) were delivered to the wrong people yesterday.
The error came to light when several patients whose scans are among about 6,000 being reviewed by the HSE found two letters in the envelopes delivered to their homes informing them of the review. They received both the notification of the review of their own scans as well as a notification about the review which was meant to go to another named patient.
The HSE apologised for the blunder. It said about 4,600 letters had been dispatched and because of the large numbers involved it had outsourced the work to a private company.
"The HSE is deeply disappointed at this failure to protect this very sensitive information and is in discussions with the company concerned in this regard," it said. "We have arranged for the correct information to be resent to all patients this afternoon and our staff are arranging to collect and retrieve information that was misaddressed. We have also notified the data protection commissioner.
"Given the issues at hand for the people concerned with this review, the HSE would like to express its sincere apologies for this error," it added.
Louth Fine Gael TD Fergus O'Dowd said a number of patients had contacted him about the mix-up. He said he contacted the helpline set up by the HSE on behalf of one patient to ask what to do with the extra letter received and was told to return it to the HSE. But there was no address for the HSE on the letters dispatched to patients. "The whole thing is an absolutely appalling mess. They had months to think about this and to get it right," he said.
Mr O'Dowd said one woman had contacted him saying her husband, who died last October, had got a letter saying he was part of the review. She was extremely upset about it, he said.
The HSE was first informed of concerns about the work of the locum consultant radiologist whose work is now being reviewed in late 2007. At that time, concerns were raised that four lung cancer patients had a delayed diagnosis because abnormalities in initial chest X-rays read by the locum had not been spotted. The four patients have since died.
The locum worked at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda and Our Lady's Hospital in Navan from August 2006 to August 2007. It is understood the doctor, who qualified in Edinburgh in 1957 and registered with the Medical Council in August 2006, has returned to Scotland.
Tomás Sharkey, a Sinn Féin councillor in Louth, said the family of one of the four patients who had died had been in touch with him and were angry that while it was made clear to the HSE last November that their father's cancer had been missed when he presented at the Lourdes hospital in May 2007, the report of an investigation into how his diagnosis was delayed still had not been handed over to them. He said the report been expected by the family two weeks ago. The man died last January. The HSE claimed this report still has not been finalised.
Cllr Sharkey said: "It's not fair and it's not right that it has taken six months for the HSE to finally conduct a full review of all tests."
The review of all chest X-rays and CT scans reported on by the locum consultant radiologist began on Thursday. The HSE helpline set up for patients concerned about the review had received about 230 calls by 5pm yesterday. It will reopen this morning at 10am and can be contacted on 1850 24 1850.