‘Avoidable death’ among cases in Wexford cancer review

A review of missed cancers among patients who received colonoscopies at Wexford General Hospital has found a number of missed cancer diagnoses and a probable avoidable death.

Minister for Health Leo Varadkar last night extended his sympathies to the families involved and “in particular to the family of the deceased.

The review, which has identified a small number of patients with cancer which was missed, is nearing an end and follows the recall last year of almost 600 patients who had colonoscopies in the hospital in 2013 and 2014.

The Irish Times reported last May that up to 10 patients were reported to have interval cancers, which are diagnosed between screening examinations, and that the work of more than one doctor was being examined.

On Wednesday RTÉ reported that the review has identified “about 12” missed cancers and the probable death.

The report into the matter is expected to be published by the end of March and will be given to the doctors involved for their observations.

Patients affected include those attending as part of the national BowelScreen programme and patients referred for colonoscopies by their GP because of their symptoms.

A spokeswoman for the East Ireland hospital group said the recall of all patients and the subsequent report and its findings were in the final stages. “Once the report has been signed off it will need to be sent to all referenced parties within it before it can be published. We have no further comment to make at this time.”

Mr Varadkar’s spokesman said the Minister had been briefed on the issue since early 2015 and was “concerned primarily that any cancers may have been missed”.

“The Minister is also concerned about the length of time the review has taken and is conveying to the HSE the need to improve quality assurance so that lessons can be learned and mistakes not repeated. He has been assured that there has been full open disclosure in these cases.”

The Irish Patients’ Association expressed concern over the reports of missed cancers and said it was disappointing that the review was incomplete almost 15 months after the problem was identified.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams accused the Government of “presiding over five years of chaos in health that may have tragically resulted in the death of a man as a result of cancer misdiagnosis”.

“Tragedies like this happen because of a two-tier health service - the result of the Government’s pursuit of privatisation of health, when it refuses to provide hospitals with the resources they need and because the Minister responsible refuses to acknowledge that problems in the health service need to be addressed.”

Last year, it emerged that at least five patients were diagnosed with suspected cancer at the hospital following concerns over the quality of the colonoscopy tests they received.

The team carrying out the review believed that, in some cases, cancers were missed when the patient underwent the original colonoscopy.

In other cases, they were unable to establish where the disease was missed or whether it developed after the original test. The initial recall was triggered by the discovery that two patients had interval cancers but this number later increased to between five and 10.