‘I want cancer sufferers to be spared court ordeal,’ Leo tells Vicky at meeting

‘A type of redress scheme’

A HIGH Court judge is to examine ‘alternative dispute resolution mechanisms’ to avoid victims of the cervical cancer-screening scandal being forced into court.

Leo Varadkar has come in for criticism after admitting he should have been ‘more clear’ when he promised in May that no woman caught up in the scandal would have to go to court for compensation.

One woman, Ruth Morrissey, had to take the witness stand in court for two days last week and outline the impact of the physical pain she is suffering and the effect her illness has on her daughter, who is seven.

Mr Varadkar met terminally ill cervical cancer sufferer Vicky Phelan for two hours yesterday. He said she had ‘made a deep impression on the Irish public and on me’. Afterwards, he announced he had appointed Judge Charles Meenan to identify further ways to avoid adversarial court proceedings for the women and families affected by the CervicalCheck controversy.

‘Notwithstanding that parties always retain the right to go to court, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms must be found which avoid causing unnecessary distress for the women and their loved ones,’ Mr Varadkar said.

Judge Meenan has been asked to engage with women, their families and their representatives, along with the State Claims Agency and other bodies, including the laboratories. He must report to Health Minister Simon Harris within two months.

After the meeting, Ms Phelan said what the Taoiseach had outlined to her sounded like a ‘type of a redress scheme’.

She said Mr Varadkar had outlined to her the difficulties that had been encountered in trying to settle Ms Morrissey’s case through mediation. Ms Phelan said: ‘In Avoid distress: Leo Varadkar Ruth Morrissey’s case, the State Claims Agency has agreed to return to mediation talks when Ruth’s case is back in court in September.

‘I have been informed by the Taoiseach that the State Claims Agency have claimed that expert reports for Ruth were not ready and so an offer could not be made.

‘Ruth’s legal team may well dispute these facts, but I was very frank and brutally honest with the Taoiseach about how harrowing the courtroom is for women since I’ve already been through this.

‘I’ve made it quite clear that I don’t want to see any more women being brought through the courts so I will be back on this one.’

She said the Taoiseach wants to hold a public inquiry into the cervical cancer scandal.

Ms Phelan said when she asked the Taoiseach what happens as ‘regards a commission of inquiry, or investigation or a tribunal’, the Taoiseach confirmed a public commission of inquiry was his preferred option.

‘He said that Government and Opposition are in agreement and if required, legislation will be brought forward in order to ensure that this will be public,’ she said.

‘So I think most people will be happy with that, so let’s wait and see what the terms of reference are.’

She also said: ‘He said the Government and Opposition are in agreement that this needs to be public, and that legislation will be brought in if that’s the case, because I don’t think anybody wants this behind closed doors.

‘There maybe elements of it that may need to be private for families but certainly from the point of view of getting answers from the HSE and the labs we need to see these people up answering questions.’

The mother of two said another issue of concern is the proposed Patient Safety Bill, which provides for the mandatory open disclosure of serious patient safety incidents to those harmed by them.

She said she told the Taoiseach the Bill does ‘not include sanctions for individual practitioners, only healthcare providers’. Mr Varadkar told her the Bill will go through the Dáil next month, so amendments can be made ‘through the normal channels’.

Ms Phelan said she will be ‘voicing my concern about the absence of sanctions for healthcare practitioners to Simon Harris and to my local TDs’. She said: ‘At the moment, the healthcare providers, the fines anyway, are a joke. They are €5,000 to €7,000. To me that is not a deterrent.

‘It is important for me to include healthcare practitioners as well as just providers because providers are only going to be hospitals, health institutes, nursing homes. But in my case some of the harm was done by individual healthcare practitioners and that would be the same for a number of women concerned.’