Northern Trust Radiology Recall

It has been recently announced by the Northern Health & Social Care Trust that more than 9000 patients have been contacted regarding potential errors in the reviewing of scans by a consultant radiologist who worked as a locum in the Northern Trust between July 2019 and February 2020.

The Trust have outlined that over 13,000 radiology images – such as X-rays, CT scans and MRI scans – are currently in line to be reviewed with an estimated 7% of patients potentially facing a delay in diagnosis due to errors in the reporting of the scans.

More recently, however, the Medical Director of the Northern Trust, Dr Seamus O’Reilly has advised on review of the first few thousand images, 12 cases have found “major discrepancies” which may have led to some affected patients dying.

This is gravely concerning, not least as this has come not long after two other major medical recalls have occurred in Northern Ireland in the last few years: the Neurology Recall relating to Dr Michael Watt, and the Urology Recall relating to Dr Adrian O’Brien.

We represent a number of the affected patients in both the recalls relating to Dr Watt and Dr O’Brien, and we have also been recently contacted by patients relating to the latest Northern Trust Radiology Recall.

If you or a loved one have been affected by any of these issues, please get in touch with our experienced medical negligence team.