CervicalCheck report to criticise failure to tell women of audits
A REPORT on the CervicalCheck scandal is expected to be strongly critical of the delay in informing women who developed cervical cancer about internal audits confirming their test results were wrong.
The non-statutory report, carried out by Dr Gabriel Scally and which is due to be published this week, is not expected to hold specific individuals to account.
It was submitted to Health Minister Simon Harris on Friday and is due to go to Cabinet later this week if it is cleared for publication by the Attorney General.
The manner in which the results of internal reviews of test readings were conducted by CervicalCheck, after being informed of a woman’s cancer diagnosis, will be a key feature of the report.
The women were unaware this audit was under way and some died before ever finding out.
The strongest criticism is expected to centre on the failure to ensure prompt disclosure of the findings to the women once the audit was completed.
CervicalCheck sent the audits, which had been mostly completed two years earlier, to women’s cancer doctors in 2016.
But a majority of women, including the bereaved relatives of those who died, were not told about the audits until May of this year after the Vicky Phelan High Court case revealed their existence.
Dr Scally’s report contains range of recommendations.
It is expected to make clear that women whose test results are audited in future must be informed of their right to know the findings.
It comes as CervicalCheck is resisting attempts by the US-owned labs carrying out
ascreening on Irish tests to break free from the agreement to pay compensation in cases where results were misread due to negligence.
As revealed in the Irish Independent, CervicalCheck is in talks with the laboratories to extend their contract when it is up in October. It currently uses three laboratories to process cervical screening: Quest Diagnostics Inc, Teterboro, New Jersey, USA; MedLab Pathology Ltd, Dublin; and Coombe Women and Infant’s University Hospital, Dublin.
A new tender for screening will be issued by CervicalCheck next year when it moves to HPV testing.
But it needs to maintain the services of the existing laboratories in the meantime.
The State is now being asked to pay retrospective indemnity for women who take legal action for test result readings which they believe were negligently read, according to the ‘Sunday Business Post’.
The HSE yesterday declined to respond.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said Mr Harris has emphasised that “screening saves lives”.
She said: “The minister is fully committed to the continuation of cervical screening and indeed all screening programmes, which have a crucial role in cancer prevention and early detection.
“The forthcoming move to
HPV screening will improve the service further.”
It has previously emerged that the contract between CervicalCheck and Quest Diagnostics in New Jersey imposed an obligation on the lab to have insurance cover of at least €22.6m to cover each claim it could face regarding a wrong test.
The Quest contract, signed in 2008 and 2012, indemnified CervicalCheck against all claims, costs, actions and proceedings.
The largest payout of €7.5m was handed to terminally ill mother-of-five Emma Mhic Mhathúna.