Harris appoints team to assess delay in diagnosis for 206 women

Minister for Health Simon Harris has appointed a senior team of experts to examine the cases of the 206 women who missed early treatment for cervical cancer and to assess how many were not made aware of the delay in diagnosis.

The group has been asked to assess the files of each individual, to examine how CervicalCheck dealt with their cases and to report to the chief clinical officer in the Health Service Executive, Dr Colm Henry, within a matter of days.

The aim is to examine if any of the women involved were not notified of the situation and if not, why not.

The intervention follows Mr Harris’s failure to declare confidence in the leadership of the programme.

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Speaking yesterday, the Minister for Health and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said they were fully supportive of the programme insisting it had saved lives and reduced the rate of cervical cancer.

However, asked if he had confidence in the management of the programme, the Minister for Health replied: “Truthfully I can’t say I do currently and that is why I have ordered a review.”

The statement followed the inability of the clinical director of CervicalCheck Gráinne Flannelly to state if all of the women who missed early treatment for cervical cancer have been made aware of the situation.

Ms Flannelly said it was “her sense” that all had been told but she “can’t tell you for sure that the 206 patients are aware”.

Failure to reassure

Speaking to The Irish Times, Mr Harris said he was unable to support the management of the programme publicly due to their failure to reassure women, their treatment of patients “like processes” and their ability to let bureaucracy get in the way of telling women their basic information.

A root-and-branch review of CervicalCheck would be initiated next week with the assistance of international experts, he added. Final terms of reference would be agreed at the Cabinet on Tuesday.

These matters came to light due to the case of Vicky Phelan, a mother-of-two from Co Limerick. Ms Phelan settled a High Court action for €2.5 million earlier this week against a US laboratory over a 2011 smear test, which wrongly gave a negative result for cancer.

She was diagnosed with cancer in 2014 and told of the false negative in the smear test only in September 2017.

Figures

The HSE has said that since 2008 the CervicalCheck programme had been notified of 1,482 cases of women who developed cervical cancer.

It said in the majority of these cases there had been no requirement for further review.

However, in 442 cases – almost 30 per cent of the total – a review was warranted, and in almost half of these cases, earlier intervention was suggested.

According to the HSE, of those 442 cases, 206 cytology reviews suggested “a different result that would have recommended an investigation to occur at an earlier stage”.

Mr Harris said he first became aware of Ms Phelan’s case on April 16th but was notified of the magnitude of the problem only yesterday.

He held a meeting with senior officials at the Department of Health yesterday to assess if there was any awareness of the scale of the issue.

Meanwhile, the Taoiseach said he would await the final results of that review before “condemning any individual” but insisted the facts of this affair would be established.

However, Mr Varadkar urged people not to abandon the programme insisting it had saved numerous lives.

The leaders of Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin yesterday called for accountability and insisted women must be made aware of these screening errors.

Micheál Martin said it was amazing and disconcerting that there were no straight answers on how many women were affected.

Mr Martin added: “Women need to be told the truth, and quickly.”

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said a clear message needed to be sent that the culture of withholding information in the health service must end.