Women need to feel reassured over tests

THE case of Vicky Phelan, the Limerick mother who was found to have cervical cancer after a 2011 smear test was incorrectly analysed in a laboratory in the United States, is a tragic one. With only months to live, she has fought for compensation in the hope that the money might help prolong her life and allow her more time with her children.

Last week this newspaper called for an immediate settlement so she could focus all her time on her health and her family. While no money on earth will compensate Mrs Phelan and her family, it is nonetheless welcome news that her High Court action concluded yesterday with a payout of €2.5million.

What is unforgivable though is that, according to Mrs Phelan’s medical expert Professor John Shepherd, there are at least ten other women who now face the same predicament as irregularities in their tests also were missed.

This is far too serious a situation for heel-dragging. We must know precisely how many women across the country could be affected, and whether every smear test was accurately assessed and double-checked. If this means a review of all of them, then that is the bare minimum we owe to women who, reading about Vicky Phelan’s case, must justifiably be alarmed that they, too, might someday receive similar news.

The whole point of the screening programme is that it must be utterly reliable, and if there is even the tiniest doubt about the efficacy of the process, then the focus of the HSE must be firmly on conducting whatever re-evaluation is necessary to providing women with the reassurance they so desperately need.

We send every good wish now to the Phelan family and hope they can concentrate fully on what is important, instead of the drawn-out legal action that robbed them of some of the precious time they should have spent together.