18 women die, 209 get cancer – yet crisis ‘too small to tell minister’
THE controversy over the decision of CervicalCheck to inform more than 200 women with cancer they had got a mistaken smear test result was not “of sufficient scale” to inform the Health Minister, a top health official has claimed.
Jim Breslin, secretary general of the Department of Health, made the shock admission after he was pressed five times to answer the question on why CervicalCheck audits on the women – which were at the centre of intense discussions at the highest level in the health service for several months – were not brought to the attention of either Leo Varadkar or his successor Simon Harris.
“The judgment was made that within the whole gamut of issues that are being managed across the health service, it was not of sufficient scale and was being dealt with in an appropriate fashion according to a good open approach with women and did not need to be escalated,” he said.
Mr Breslin was among a group of high-level health officials, including chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan, who appeared before the Oireachtas Health Committee.
Dr Holohan insisted the decision not to tell the minister was “fair and reasonable”.
Meanwhile, two of those affected by the scandal – Limerick mother Vicky Phelan and widower Stephen Teap – gave harrowing testimony to the Dáil Public Accounts Committee. Ms Phelan, who has terminal cancer, said: “If I do die, I want it not to be in vain.”
Mr Teap, whose wife Irene died last year without knowing about her incorrect smear test results, said women had been “handed death sentences”.