Still no data on second tests tranche
INFORMATION about the second tranche of 1,500 women who have developed cervical cancer since the introduction of the national screening service is still not available, health chiefs admitted yesterday.
Health Minister Simon Harris has said he is ‘mad as hell’ to have been told on Monday last at 6pm that there is a second group, the same size as the first, about whom new questions have been raised.
But there were still no answers yesterday, three days on – despite assurances at the beginning of the week that the new army of cancer victims would have their clinical history urgently interrogated. The CervicalCheck helpline has received some 7,500 calls since Saturday.
Asked by the Irish Daily Mail how many of this second tranche have had previous smear tests, how many may have had false negatives, how many were not told, and how many had since
Health Minister ‘mad as hell’
died, the HSE, Chief Medical Officer, National Cancer Programme and CervicalCheck were all unable to say.
There are figures for the first 1,500 of 3,000 Irish women diagnosed with cervical cancer since the national screening programme began ten years ago.
They show that 208 women should have been told that their original smear result had anomalies. Of these, 175 should have resulted in an escalation for biopsy (further testing of a cell or tissue sample), or colposcopy (a physical examination of the cervix by a clinician), while 33 would have warranted only an earlier repeat smear test. But of the 208 cancer victims, a total of 162 were not given any information or advice – and 17 have died.
Only two of these 17 knew there had been an aberration on their earlier smear test results before they lost their lives.
Last night it emerged that 181 of the 208 women or their families have been contacted by the HSE about a review of their cervical smear test results.
Dr Jerome Coffey, the National Director of the National Screening Service, said the figures relating to the second 1,500 were not yet available, but would feed into the overall scoping review to be led by a foreign expert ahead of a fully fledged inquiry. But it was indicated that the Taoiseach was likely correct when he told the Dáil midweek that ‘many’ of the second 1,500 will not have had a smear test to look back upon. This is partly due to the age of these cancer patients and the possibility of their never having been called for a screening, but also partially because there is a 20% level of ‘non-engagement’ with the national screening programme.