Minister for Health Mary Harney and Health Service Executive chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm will appear before an Oireachtas committee this morning where they are expected to face questions over their handling of the Portlaoise cancer controversy.
Three reports into the controversy at the Midland Regional Hospital at Portlaoise, in which nine women were falsely given the all-clear for breast cancer following mammograms, were published yesterday.
The reports found "significant and avoidable" delays in diagnoses as well as mismanagement that "heightened anxiety and uncertainty" for the women affected.
A clinical study of mammography services at Midlands Regional Hospital in Portlaoise was carried out by Dr Ann O'Doherty, who said services given to patients between November 2003 and August 2007 fell well below best practice.
Harney is likely to face questions over the HSE's handling of the Portlaoise cancer inquiry.
Breast cancer services were suspended, and a clinical review of more than 3,000 mammograms began late last year after it emerged a number of women had been misdiagnosed. Nine women were found to have cancer after they had initially been told they were clear.
Dr O'Doherty's report concluded that best practice in breast-imaging services was not adhered to at Portlaoise Hospital, including the way images were processed, the absence of triple assessment and diagnostic multidisciplinary meetings.
The HSE apologised in a statement for the misdiagnoses which were due to "shortfalls in clinical quality standards at Portlaoise hospital".
HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm said: "What happened here is horrendous to the individual women and to this organisation."
A second report carried out by John Fitzgerald for the HSE board, published earlier yesterday, examined the management of all events following the decision to suspend the services in Portlaoise.
Mr Fitzgerald, a former Dublin city manager, criticises "inconsistency and lack of clarity" in information released by the HSE to the press, with an "ongoing" release of the numbers of patients affected.