ALMOST 300 women called a HSE helpline after the misdiagnosis of a miscarriage in the northeast.

Minister for Health Mary Harney told the Dáil that up to last Friday, two weeks after the case emerged at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, some 295 people contacted the helpline. She said 95 per cent of the calls were related to Our Lady of Lourdes hospital. “I do not suggest all of those calls are cases, but obviously they were from people who had a miscarriage,” Ms Harney said during question time.

The Minister, who was told of the case last year, said there was “no other case of this type on the patient safety protocol register”. However a number of cases were brought to her attention following media coverage of the incorrect diagnoses.