A radiologist whose licence to practise was revoked in two countries reported on scans for patients in Ireland, Highland Radio reported in August 2026.

The company that engaged him has since said that an independent review of those Irish reports found no patient safety concerns.

The case still offers a useful illustration of how a radiology misdiagnosis or misread scan can affect a patient, and of what a look back review involves.

What the Swedish regulator found

The radiologist named in the report, Dr Sattar Kadhem, lost his licence in Sweden in June 2023, and in Norway soon afterwards.

The Swedish regulator identified a series of reporting failures. According to the report, these included a large blood clot that went unnoticed, air trapped in a patient’s lungs, missed bone abnormalities, a missed spine fracture, and a bowel obstruction that he misdiagnosed.

He remains registered with the General Medical Council in the United Kingdom, which is now considering the matter. He also lost the position through which the reports had been supplied.

How the reports reached patients in Ireland

Highland Radio reported that Dr Kadhem supplied radiology reports through a company called Hexamark until September 2024. Those reports went to the diagnostic imaging company Affidea Ireland, which reports on scans for HSE patients.

A spokeswoman for Affidea Ireland described the arrangement as periodic reporting services. The report does not make clear whether the company’s Letterkenny branch was affected.

The independent review found no safety concerns

Affidea commissioned an independent review of the reports as a precaution. That review concluded that all of the reports met a satisfactory standard, and it identified no patient safety concerns.

That finding deserves to be stated plainly. A regulatory decision in another country does not, by itself, show that any patient in Ireland came to harm.

When a radiology misdiagnosis can amount to medical negligence

Not every missed finding on a scan amounts to negligence. Radiology turns on interpretation, some findings are genuinely subtle, and a difference of professional opinion is not a failure of care.

A radiology misdiagnosis claim arises only where the reporting fell below the standard reasonably expected of a competent radiologist, and where that failure caused harm the patient would otherwise have avoided.

Both elements have to be shown. Establishing that a radiologist missed something will not carry a claim if finding it earlier would have made no difference to the outcome.

In practice a solicitor gathers the images and the medical records, then asks a consultant radiologist to review them independently. That consultant compares what the original report said with what the images actually showed.

What a look back review means for a patient

Where a concern arises about a particular clinician’s reporting, the provider or the HSE may carry out a look back review, re-examining that clinician’s reports.

Patients hear directly where a review finds something that needs to be acted upon. Being contacted does not mean that an error occurred in your own case.

Anyone contacted about a review can request a copy of their imaging and of the report written on it. The same applies to a patient whose scan did not identify a cause for their symptoms, where those symptoms have since continued.

Patients have a right of access to their own medical records, and those records are where any independent opinion begins.

Time limits and the next step

A medical negligence claim is generally subject to a two year period. That period runs either from the date of the incident, or from the date of knowledge.

The date of knowledge is the date on which the person knew, or ought reasonably to have known, that their injury connected to the care they received. Where a review carried out years later identifies a radiology misdiagnosis in the original report, that date can fall long after the date of the scan itself.

How Coleman Legal LLP can help

Diane Treanor and the medical negligence team at Coleman Legal LLP advise patients concerned about a radiology misdiagnosis, missed diagnosis or delayed diagnosis. We can gather the imaging and records, arrange an independent review, and explain the options and the time limits that apply.