A Tipperary woman whose breast cancer diagnosis was delayed for 14 months has received an apology from Minister for Health Mary Harney at Leinster House.
Rebecca O'Malley's meeting with the Minister yesterday lasted almost an hour and was described as being good and cordial.
Ms O'Malley (41), a mother of three, said Ms Harney agreed with her that patients who were the victims of medical errors had a right to be told.
She also said Ms Harney had asked the recently formed Commission on Patient Safety and Quality Assurance to look at whether the reporting of medical errors should be made mandatory. This is something for which Ms O'Malley has been campaigning.
Ms Harney invited her to meet the chair of the commission Dr Deirdre Madden to discuss her concerns and Ms O'Malley said she would be taking up the invitation.
"I was happy with the meeting. It was a good cordial meeting and we will just have to wait and see now," she added.
Meanwhile, a team of experts from at home and abroad is being assembled by the Health Information and Quality Authority to conduct an independent investigation into Ms O'Malley's misdiagnosis. The members of the team, as well as their terms of reference, will be announced shortly.
Ms O'Malley, from Ballina near Killaloe, had a biopsy at the Midwestern Regional Hospital, Limerick, in March 2005 to test her for suspected breast cancer. The sample was sent to a laboratory at Cork University Hospital (CUH), which reported it to be normal.
However, 14 months later, when she had a second biopsy, the test showed she did have cancer. She underwent a mastectomy and a course of chemotherapy before it emerged the first test did, in fact, show malignancy.
A CUH report into her case, published last month, found "an interpretive human error" led to her incorrect diagnosis in the first place, but the report, Ms O'Malley said, left many questions unanswered.
The Department of Health, in a statement last evening, said Ms Harney welcomed the opportunity to meet Ms O'Malley and to convey in person her regret and apologies for what had happened her.
Ms Harney, it said, was in full agreement with Ms O'Malley that the results of the investigation into her case should be published.