Vicky Phelan raised concerns inquiry’s terms did not cover patient safety

The terminally ill Limerick woman whose case revealed the CervicalCheck scandal has raised concerns with the chair of the scoping inquiry that its terms of reference failed to consider the controversy as a patient-safety issue.

Vicky Phelan (43), from Annacotty, Co Limerick, said she told Dr Gabriel Scally she was concerned his inquiry would not investigate CervicalCheck’s failures in the context of patient safety.

Dr Scally has been appointed by the Government to lead the initial investigation into the missed cancer tests and the failure of the national screening programme to tell the affected women.

Ms Phelan told The Irish Times that Dr Scally had assured her during a meeting at St Vincent's hospital in Dublin on Wednesday that he would frame his investigation as a patient-safety issue.

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“That satisfied me,” she said.

‘Quite angry’

The mother of two said she was “quite angry” with last month’s briefing note about her case prepared for Minister for Health Simon Harris by his officials in which her case was not seen as a patient-safety incident.

I feel he will carry out a complete root-and-branch audit of CervicalCheck and I have great confidence after meeting him and what he has told me he is going to do

After speaking to Dr Scally twice by phone on Tuesday and meeting him on Wednesday in hospital where she was undergoing treatment for her cancer, Ms Phelan said she considered the Belfast-born doctor who has experience leading healthcare investigations an “excellent” choice to lead the scoping investigation.

“I feel he will carry out a complete root-and-branch audit of CervicalCheck and I have great confidence after meeting him and what he has told me he is going to do,” she said.

Report back

Ms Phelan, however, questioned whether Dr Scally could meet the inquiry’s term of reference to engage directly with any other affected women or their next of kin, if the woman has died – should they wish to have an input – given the number of people involved and that he has to report back to the Minister by the end of June.

“I know he has got a team of people who are going to work with him. In fairness to him, he will try to get to the bottom of as much as he can,” she said.

“I do wonder about the timeframe and how broad the terms of reference are.”

Stephen Teap, whose late wife received two false negative tests over a three-year period, spoke to Dr Scally yesterday and said he was happy that someone with “an independent view” who was “completely separate from the system” was carrying out the initial investigation.

His wife Irene was one of 17 women who received inaccurate smear test results to have died. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2015 and died in July 2017 at the age of 35, leaving behind two young sons, Oscar and Noah.

False tests

Mr Teap, who is from Carrigaline, Co Cork, only learned of the false tests when he was contacted by the HSE last week.

He said he was happy with the terms of reference around the scoping inquiry but that he was concerned that Health Service Executive director general Tony O’Brien was continuing in the job until July while the inquiry was ongoing given his past role running the CervicalCheck screening programme.

“I think he needs to be removed from it completely. There is no need for him in it. We need to look at his position in all of this,” he said.

Mr Teap said he would be meeting Dr Scally next week to discuss the scoping inquiry further.