A total of 52 cases of serious healthcare errors and systems failures being investigated around the country are contained on a list drawn up by the HSE and recently given to the state health safety watchdog, irishhealth.com has learned.

Both the HSE and Department of Health have to date refused to publish the list.

According to the document, which is a HSE register of inquiries and reviews into serious healthcare incidents, 12 of the cases that were being actively investigated were serious enough to have "systemic implications" and to involve "public confidence issues".

The list was given to the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) last September shortly after its independent investigation into services at Ennis General Hospital was announced. This probe followed the controversy over the case of Ann Moriarty, who died from metastatic breast cancer after twice being given the all-clear by the hospital.

According to the serious incident list, released by HIQA under FOI, of the 52 cases, 18 had been "screened and closed", 12 being probed had been classified as serious enough to raise public confidence/systemic issues and a further 12 probes were deemed "serious but essentially local."

A further 10 cases are listed as "being assessed". Of the 52 total cases listed, 38 concern primary and community care, 10 involve hospital care and four involve population health.

Of the hospital cases, six of the cases involved radiology; three of these are listed as "screened and closed", a further two were being actively probed under the serious "public confidence issue" heading while a further case was being assessed.

Also under the hospital heading, a further two serious incident cases involving surgical incidents were being assessed while another case had been screened and closed. A further hospital case involving "Hepatitis B/cross-infection" was being assessed, according to the list.

Under primary and community care, a total of 38 cases of serious incident probes are listed. Of these, 11 were screened and closed while 10 of the remaining active cases being probed were deemed to have systemic implications/public confidence issues - four of these cases involved childcare/family issues while a further four involved older persons.

A further 12 cases being probed under the primary/community care heading were deemed serious but essentially local while a further five were being assessed.

Under the population health heading, a total of four cases were listed. Three of these had been screened and closed, according to the list, whole a further case, involving "laptop theft" was being assessed.

The list provided to HIQA does not give any details of the precise nature of the errors/incidents, nor of the regions or local areas/hospitals where they occurred.

Last year, irishhealth.com learned that the Department of Health had requested and was given a list of serious healthcare incidents from the HSE in February, at a time when a number of breast cancer care inquiries were taking place.

An updated list was given to HIQA just after the Ennis inquiry was announced in September.

However, both the Department of Health and HSE have to date refused to divulge any details of the healthcare incident list. The Department said last September that releasing the list "could prejudice the receipt of information of this nature from healthcare providers in future."

HSE CEO Prof Brendan Drumm has also refused to discuss details of the incident list.

In terms of cancer, Prof Drumm has indicated that there may be many more delayed diagnoses than have been publicly reported as a result of deficiencies in the system prior to the current cancer service reorganisation.

When the incident list was compiled in September, major independent reviews into four breast cancer misdiagnoses had already reported, while the north-east lung cancer review was about to report. It is not clear whether the probe into the removal of the wrong kidney from a child at Crumlin hospital, which reported last October, is included in the September list of probes.

As a number of cases on the list are deemed as being assessed, it is possible that further major healthcare probes could result from this assessment.

At present the only publicly-known independent clinical incident review being carried out is the HIQA Ennis Hospital review. The September clincial incident list is believed to include only reviews being carried out by the HSE itself at the time.

According to statistics from the State's Clinical Indemnity Scheme, a total of 55,073 adverse healthcare incidents were reported in 2007. However, the majority of these incidents are not believed to include treatment errors and many come under the heading of violence or harassment, trips and falls and records/documentation incidents.

According to the Clinical Indemnity Scheme, which provides state insurance for hospitals and other health agencies, a total of 431 claims were submitted to it arising from adverse incidents in 2007.