POLITICAL REACTION:OPPOSITION politicians have strongly criticised Minister for Health Mary Harney and Health Service Executive chief executive Brendan Drumm following the publication yesterday of the reports into breast cancer misdiagnosis in Portlaoise.
However, Fine Gael health spokesman Dr James Reilly and his Labour counterpart Jan O'Sullivan stopped short of calling for the resignation of either Ms Harney or Prof Drumm. Both were scathing of the Minister and Prof Drumm over their respective stewardships of the health services.
Dr Reilly and Ms O'Sullivan said they would directly confront Ms Harney and Prof Drumm when they appear before the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children this morning to give a quarterly update on health issues.
Dr Reilly said his views on Ms Harney had not changed since the Dáil debated a motion of no confidence in her in November. He said Prof Drumm's position also seemed increasingly untenable.
"On the face of it, Prof Drumm's position looks extremely precarious, but I would hate to see him go and the Minister stay because it's ultimately her responsibility," he said. "She employed him, she created the HSE. You have to come back to this. This is Mary Harney's HSE.
"Let's face it. She has been presiding over this for 3½ years and there's only an acting head of human resources in the HSE for an organisation with 130,000 staff," he added.
"The Minister must accept responsibility for her creation. She must accept responsibility for ignoring the warnings about a bureaucratic bulge in the HSE where there is no shortage of managers but a serious shortage of anyone taking responsibility."
Dr Reilly said the reports had found the HSE to be dysfunctional. However, ultimately Ms Harney had to take responsibility for that "sorry state". He described Ms Harney as the "Minister for tomorrow never comes" and said urgent reform of the HSE was needed.
He said the reports showed there was no accountability and no transparency in the health service.
Ms O'Sullivan, in equally hard-hitting comments, said the reports showed the HSE was "in a shambles" and she accused Ms Harney of not taking responsibility.
She said the conclusion in Dr Ann O'Doherty's report that the standard of the breast imaging service in Portlaoise fell well below best practice was a "shocking finding".
"It shows how women at risk of cancer were let down by our inadequate health system," she said.
"Taken with the two other reports, the findings are a damning indictment of the HSE and the Minister, who was responsible for the creation of the HSE."
Ms O'Sullivan said she was puzzled that the mammography equipment in Portlaoise seemed to have been decommissioned before Dr O'Doherty started her review, although breast radiological services were suspended only the previous day.
In a specific reference to John Fitzgerald's report on the HSE corporate response to the crisis, Ms O'Sullivan said his conclusion had understated the extent of the organisational chaos.
"Despite the fact that senior personnel are amongst the highest paid officials in the public service, the picture we see is one of no one being in charge," she said.