VICKY SOLICITOR BLASTS RTE OVER HOLOHAN CLAIMS
» Chief doctor accused of making ‘untrue statements’ » Broadcaster agrees to make programme changes
VICKY Phelan’s solicitor has blasted RTE over an interview with Tony Holohan in which he claims there were “no delayed diagnoses” involving Cervicalcheck.
Cian O’carroll, who represented Ms Phelan and several other women whose smear slides were misread, urged RTE not to broadcast some parts of The Meaning of Life this Sunday.
The broadcaster last night confirmed to this newspaper that it had taken his concerns on board and made changes to the programme ahead of its transmission.
In an earlier unedited preview of the interview with Joe Duffy, seen by this newspaper, the former chief medical officer said women did not suffer a delayed diagnosis of cancer as a result of the misreading of smears through the Cervicalcheck screening programme.
Dr Holohan stated: “There was no delayed diagnoses, there was no misdiagnoses in our screening programme. That’s not to say at the level of the individual, that there may well have been some individuals.”
In a letter to RTE’S director of programming Mr O’carroll accused Dr Holohan of making “untrue statements” adding the interview “should not be broadcast without some clear expression or contextualisation of those untruths for viewers”.
INCORRECT
He says that as a solicitor working on behalf of those affected, including more than 30 women who have died, he can “state with some regrettable authority” that this is incorrect.
Mr O’carroll continues: “In many of the hundreds of cases taken to date against Cervicalcheck and the private laboratories to which it outsourced the reading and interpretation of those smears, negligence causing death and truly horrific injuries has been admitted.
“In many more cases, that negligence was effectively conceded through the payment of massive damages that no private company would ever contemplate unless it knew it bore a clear responsibility for the harm caused.
“The failings of Cervicalcheck were many and complex but for each patient harmed, it usually came down to a misreading of a smear test down the lens of a microscope.
“Those errors caused a failure to detect a pre-cancer and those women in most cases went on to develop invasive cancer as a direct consequence of that error.
“Dr Holohan is denying that this happened and that is manifestly untrue.
“In fact, he goes further than deny that any woman got cancer as a result of these failures, he actually states that there was no negligence, and these errors were just ‘differences of opinion’.
“The High Court and the Supreme Court have taken a very different view and I think when it comes to pronouncements on what does or does not constitute medical negligence, we must be guided by judges.”
He states there was no negligence.. errors just ‘differences of opinion’
Urging RTE not to broadcast parts of the “misleading” and “hurtful” interview, Mr O’carroll says they “ought not be given the platform of your programme.” Quizzed at length by Joe Duffy Dr Holohan says on the programme that he “wouldn’t characterise them as misreadings – differences of opinion”. In his November 2022 report on Cervicalcheck Dr Gabriel Scally said what was revealed “in the aftermath of Vicky Phelan’s court case was that Ireland had a cervical screening programme that was deeply flawed”.
He added: “It is, in my view, entirely reprehensible to claim that, in the past, Cervicalcheck was as good as any other cervical screening programme in the world.”
An RTE spokeswoman said The Meaning of Life is “not a current affairs programme and its one-to-one format does not always allow contrary opinions to be aired”.
She added: “There are strongly held opinions and huge sensitivities around this issue and a format such as this is, which has a moral and spiritual focus, is not always the best place to tease out nuance.
“On balance, we decided to make further changes to the programme ahead of transmission.
“It is not uncommon to make changes right up until broadcast.”