REACTION:OPPOSITION PARTIES yesterday called on the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) to investigate the misdiagnosis surrounding Melissa Redmond's pregnancy.
Fine Gael and Labour said the watchdog must intervene after Ms Redmond was wrongly told her unborn baby was dead following a scan at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital last July only to later find from a GP the diagnosis was a mistake.
Dr James Reilly, Fine Gael health spokesman, expressed shock at the revelation and said the work at the centre of the misdiagnosis must be reviewed.
“Human error will always be with us but a good health system minimises the impact on patients,” Dr Reilly said.
“With decisions of such magnitude as this one, which in this case would have seen the loss of life of a healthy infant, there has to be a second opinion at consultant level.
“The work of the doctor concerned should be reviewed so that patients can be assured no other harm was caused. This can be conducted by HIQA.”
A spokesman for HIQA said it will be in contact with the Health Service Executive in relation to the incident, but would not make any further comment.
Labour Party health spokesperson Jan O’Sullivan said that unless there is total accountability through an independent investigation and hospitals are given resources to replace outdated equipment, pregnant women will not trust the health service.
“This misdiagnosis has once again highlighted the issue of hospitals being under resourced both in terms of experienced staff and equipment,” Ms O’Sullivan said.
Patient Focus national co-ordinator Sheila O’Connor said yesterday’s revelation did not come as a surprise. She said the group deals with cases of misdiagnoses in different medical areas and different hospitals on a frequent basis.
“Our feeling is that it’s very, very sad and something we come across frequently enough in Patient Focus,” she said.
Ms O’Connor called for a helpline to be set up for other pregnant women treated at the hospital in similar circumstances to voice their concerns.
Janette Byrne, of Patients Together, said there were likely to be a lot of women treated at the hospital given a similar diagnosis and who may now have concerns about the scanning equipment.
The Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services Ireland (AIMS) said it hears stories from patients of scans being poorly interpreted at hospitals and of information being misrepresented.
“Women do report to us that there is great variability within scans that they receive at different hospitals and perhaps sometimes even within the same hospital,” spokeswoman Krysia Lynch said.
“We have heard of many cases in which the scans have been poorly interpreted.” She said a woman at a Dublin hospital was told late last year she had placenta previa, a condition which can lead to a Caesarean birth, but a second opinion found the diagnosis to be incorrect.
AIMS, set up in 2007 by a group of mothers dissatisfied with maternity care, called for Our Lady of Lourdes to set up a system to reassure other women treated at the hospital after several contacted them yesterday on aimsireland.com. The HSE has established a dedicated helpline which can be reached on 1800-200529 from 9am today.