No ‘at risk’ patients notified of diagnosis as late as February

The Health Minister made the claim in response to an Assembly Question from Foyle Sinn Féin candidate Martina Anderson.

She suggested information had come to light that one of the patients was not informed until Thursday, February 3, 2011.

The Minister responded: “It is clearly unacceptable for such delays in radiological reporting and I very much regret the distress and anxiety that some patients and their families have experienced as a consequence.

“The communication of the results of diagnostic tests to patients is entirely a clinical matter and even in these exceptional circumstances it would not be appropriate for me to discuss the clinical diagnoses of individual patients. In recent public statements by senior members of staff, the Western HSC Trust has confirmed that patients were notified of the results as soon as they became available. I have been assured by the Trust that no patient was notified of their diagnosis as late as 3 February 2011.”