Scan review at hospital completed

SERIOUS MISSED DIAGNOSES WERE FOUND IN CASES OF 11 PATIENTS

AN unprecedented review of over 46,000 scans at University Hospital Kerry has now been concluded and a final audit of the review is due to be complete by the end of the month.

A team of 10 consultant radiologists spent five months working on the review which involved a complete recheck of every scan examined by a locum radiologist who worked at the hospital from March 2016 to July 2017.

The scan crisis began in July and August 2017 when management at the hospital were notified of three missed cancer diagnoses that had not been picked up by the locum. The radiologist was immediately placed on administrative leave and a preliminary audit of their work was carried out.

Based on the results of that audit it was decided to carry out a recheck of every single scan the radiologist had examined while employed at the hospital.

This saw the review team examine 46,235 individual scans, x-rays and ultrasounds relating to 26,756 individual patients.

At Thursday’s meeting of the Southern Regional Health Forum the HSE provided an update on the review following questions from Cllr Damian Quigg (SF) and Cllr John Joe Culloty (FF).

The HSE said that as a result of the review close to 370 patients were called back for new scans and that 11 missed diagnoses were discovered, including seven cancer cases.

A quality assurance examination of the review and the patient recalls is underway and this is due to be completed by the end of March at which point a final report will be prepared.