State Claims Agency disputes CervicalCheck version of events

The State Claims Agency (SCA) has insisted it was told by the HSE's CervicalCheck programme that all women had been informed of the outcomes of cervical cancer audits.

In a letter to the Dáil Public Accounts Committee the agency disputed evidence provided last week on the issue by CervicalCheck.

In the letter to the committee, agency director Ciarán Breen said: "We have noted that John Gleeson of HSE CervicalCheck , during his evidence to the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday 17th May last, indicated that nobody in HSE CervicalCheck informed the SCA in or about the time of Vicky Phelan's trial that all of the women, the subject matter of the audit, had been informed.

“Mr Gleeson’s assertion does not accord with the facts. The agency reiterates its advices to the committee that its legal team, comprising senior and junior counsel , a solicitor and a paralegal held a teleconference on 20th April, 2018 with a senior person in CervicalCheck.

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“Senior counsel specifically asked if that person, the employee of CervicalCheck, was aware whether or not the affected women had been informed. The reply was that all women whose smear was part of the audit had now been informed or assumed they had been informed by their treating clinicians and this reply was carefully noted and attached to the SCA legal file,” the letter stated.

Ms Phelan’s legal action brought to light the current controversy over women not being told of the outcome of cervical screening audits.

Labour Party TD Alan Kelly said on Thursday the agency letter was "extremely serious".

He said there was now a situation where the agency was completely contradicting CervicalCheck regarding evidence given with regard to the case brought by Ms Phelan.

“We in the Public Accounts Committee are going to get to the bottom of this. And, if necessary, we will bring back representatives of the SCA and CervicalCheck .”

Mr Kelly said women and their families needed to know what was the accurate position.

The cervical cancer test controversy arose last month after Limerick woman Vicky Phelan settled her action against a US laboratory, subcontracted by the CervicalCheck screening programme to assess the tests, without admission of liability for €2.5 million.

Ms Phelan discovered that a 2011 smear test that had initially shown no abnormalities was, three years later, found to be inaccurate. But she was not told of the false test until September 2017. She is now suffering from terminal cancer.