An indepdendent health body is to begin a review of standards of treatment for breast disease in centres throughout the State after concerns were raised over two such facilities in the past week.
The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) said today it was important to assure women receiving treatment for breast disease that they are receiving the highest quality of care, regardless of where they receive treatment.
Dr Tracey Cooper, HIQA
Barringtons private hospital in Limerick was asked last week by Minister for Health Mary Harney to suspend its breast cancer treatment services after concerns were raised about the care given to at least 10 patients. However, it is expected that at least 1,000 other cases dealt with by the hospital will also be reviewed in the course of an investigation ordered by the Minister.
Ms Harney met representatives of the hospital at Leinster House yesterday to discuss setting up an independent investigation into the care given to all breast cancer patients seen at Barringtons since September 2003.
It also emerged yesterday that thousands of scans carried out on breast cancer patients who attended the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise over an almost four-year period are to be reviewed.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) said yesterday that about 3,000 mammograms and 2,500 breast ultrasounds had been carried out at Midland Regional Hospital since November 2003.
HIQA today announced it will bring forward the quality review of centres providing symptomatic breast disease services across Ireland.
The body said Ms Harney had published quality assurance standards for symptomatic breast disease services in May of this year. They were developed by an expert working group chaired by Prof Niall O'Higgins and an implementation plan is currently being developed by the Health Service Executive (HSE).
Chief executive HIQA Dr Tracey Cooper said, "In light of recent events that have given rise to anxiety and concern regarding the quality of symptomatic breast disease services in Ireland, it is important that we can assure that, regardless of where a woman receives care for symptomatic breast disease, she is receiving the highest quality of care as laid out in the standards.
"It is also important to reassure people that there are a number of high quality facilities already providing this level of care within Ireland and a quality review programme will ensure that this is the case across the country."
The review will commence in the coming months and will make recommendations for action where the standards have not been met, Dr Cooper said.
Labour Party health spokeswoman Liz McManus welcomed the review but said the fact that it has to be carried out, and that it involves tests carried out over a four-year period, shows "how grossly deficient monitoring and management of these procedures have been".
The Irish Cancer Society also welcomed the HIQA review.
It said breast disease is currently being treated in too many hospitals, both public and private, where there is "no systematic approach to care or adherence to national quality assurance standards, and this is entirely unacceptable".
Latest figures from the National Cancer Registry show 2,352 new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed in 2005. Women in Ireland have a one in 11 chance of developing breast cancer during the course of their lifetime and about 650 die from the disease every year.