A letter to then minister for health Micheál Martin outlining the serious concerns of a breast disease specialist at Midlands Regional Hospital in Portlaoise has gone missing from the Department of Health but was seen by a senior Health Service Executive official who compiled a report published yesterday into failings at the hospital.
The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children heard today that the letter by consultant surgeon Peter Naughton was not provided in response to a Freedom of Information request.
Minister for Health Mary Harney told the committee that the letter could not located by officials at the department.
But Ann Doherty, who compiled one of three reports into the breast cancer scandal at Portlaoise, confirmed the letter's existence.
Fine Gael health spokesman Dr James Reilly told today's committee that an investigation into how it went missing should be carried out.
Mr Naughton's letter of April 2002 to Mr Martin said: "Services for cancer patients are worse now than they were seven years ago . . . I am writing out of a deep sense of frustration and despair."
Mr Reilly said it also showed that assurances from Minister for Health Mary Harney that her predecessor Mr Martin had not been sent a warning about cancer services in Portlaoise were false.