A woman who was mistakenly given the all-clear after a botched breast cancer biopsy is to meet with Health Minister Mary Harney, it emerged tonight.
Mother-of-three Rebecca O'Malley (41) from Ballina, Co Tipperary, received a phone call from Ms Harney's private secretary this morning, who invited her to a meeting in Leinster House on Wednesday.
Mrs O'Malley had a breast removed in a London clinic in June 2006 more than a year after being told by health professionals in Cork that biopsy lab tests were negative. The head of the Health Service Executive (HSE) last week apologised and ordered a probe into the blunder.
"I am pleased that Minister Harney has agreed to my request for an early meeting, at which I will be requesting that the minister gives an immediate, firm and public commitment to ensuring that all and any recommendations contained in the report on my case that will be published in due course by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), are implemented in full and without delay," Mrs O'Malley said.
"That commitment should also extend to providing the necessary resources to fully fund the implementation of all recommendations". "I will also be asking the minister \[Harney] to give her backing to my public calls for new legislation that will make it mandatory for medical errors to be reported to the patient or their next-of-kin, and also to be entered on a central register that would be maintained by a designated body such as HIQA.
"That legislation would need to incorporate penalties for failure to report errors and protection from reprisals for those reporting errors." In March 2005 Mrs O'Malley underwent a fine needle biopsy in Limerick and results from Cork University Hospital (CUH) said the sample was benign.
The following April she went back to her GP complaining of pains in her breast and a second biopsy in June confirmed she had cancer. Facing a four-week wait for surgery, she flew to London for a mastectomy and over the next five months had intensive chemotherapy. She underwent further surgery on lymph nodes in December 2006 after cancer traces were detected. Last month, as she continued her recovery, the HSE asked her not to go public as CUH was to launch a full inquiry.
Mrs O'Malley said she heard nothing back from the HSE or the hospital for a month. She said persistent calls for an independent review were ignored. Some weeks ago, following a blistering attack by Mrs O'Malley on health chiefs for failing to act when the mistake was first noticed, the HSE confirmed "interpretive human error" was to blame for the misdiagnosis in March 2005. Last week HSE Chief Executive Professor Brendan Drumm ordered the probe and apologised to Mrs O'Malley.
He asked the HIQA to look into how the error was made, how the HSE responded and how a repeat of the devastating mistake can be prevented.
"Whilst it is recognised that those in the health service provide magnificent care on behalf of their patients, this is all about being honest and open with the consumers of health care and challenging a culture which is widely regarded as wanting to hide mistakes from public view," Mrs O'Malley said today. "Patients and their families deserve to know when things go wrong and they should not have to break down doors to find the truth".