CervicalCheck report submitted to Minister for Health

Dr Gabriel Scally, the public health official asked by the Government to investigate the Cervical Check controversy, has submitted his scoping inquiry report to the Minister for Health Simon Harris.

The report has been forwarded to the Attorney General, a spokeswoman for the Minister has said. Mr Harris will be briefed by Dr Scally on Monday or Tuesday ahead of the Minister presenting the report to Cabinet on Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for Dr Scally said it was a matter for the Minister to determine a date for its publication and the process by which it is published.

The Northern Irish health service veteran investigated why scores of women who had past smear tests that were incorrectly found to show no abnormalities were not informed by CervicalCheck, the national cervical screening programme, about audits that revealed the false negatives.

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The controversy emerged after Limerick mother-of-two Vicky Phelan settled a High Court case against a US lab for €2.5 million that carried out a false smear test in 2011.

She was only informed of the misread test last year even though the false negative came to light in an audit after she had been diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2014.

The Health Service Executive has subsequently found that a total of 221 women have been affected by the controversy, which cost the clinical director of CervicalCheck, Dr Gráinne Flannelly, her job.