State’s smear test inquiry slammed as ‘insignificant’
Solicitor claims Government has set ‘attack dogs’ on women
THE solicitor representing many of the women falsely given the all-clear for cervical cancer has slammed a Government investigation into the scandal as a ‘sham’.
Cian O’Carroll told the MoS that Dr Gabriel Scally’s report is going to have ‘absolutely no significance on the pressing issue of the nature and the errors that are part of this scandal’.
Dr Scally’s inquiry has already claimed his investigation was delayed because the Health Service Executive did not provide him with adequate documentation.
And now the MoS can reveal crucial medical records that would show the degree to which the US laboratories misread smear tests will not even be studied by Dr Scally. It has been confirmed that he will not be reviewing the cytology reports of all 221 women affected, although the terms of reference of his inquiry include assessing the quality of the programmes.
However, a spokeswoman for Dr Scally defended his work. In a statement released to the MoS, she said: ‘The terms of reference for the scoping inquiry into the CervicalCheck Screening Programme does not extend to the reviewing of individual women’s clinical results. Therefore the inquiry quite rightly does not have direct access to cytology reports.’
Mr O’Carroll said this raises serious concerns about the review and its ultimate findings. ‘I have looked at the terms of reference [for the Scally inquiry] and they are very much taken up with non-disclosure, but it does talk about quality assurance within the laboratories.
‘If he is interpreting that as meaning he shouldn’t look at clinical data, that means the only quality assurance he will be looking at is whether they [the labs] are accredited. These clinical reviews are one page documents for each patient. The most obvious thing it will show is the degree of re-categorisation of the slides.
‘That does not prove negligence,’ he said.
Mr O’Carroll, who has represented Vicky Phelan – who exposed the CervicalCheck scandal – among others in the High Court, said that instead of suing the US labs that misread the tests, the State is encouraging internet trolls to attack the women involved. The Tipperary based solicitor said: ‘There is a tone there that the women are not deserving and that they are whining, and that they will bring down the screening programme and they [internet trolls] are being encouraged by the Department of Health. I certainly think it is an attack. ‘The State said it will support women and it is not doing that, it’s attacking them. For what? To help a bunch of laboratories who make hundreds of millions a year.’
Mr O’Carroll has warned that when it comes to the issue of negligence, 40 of the 221 cases have been investigated and all involve a breach of the duty of care.
‘It is my duty to mind my clients and if we do not have a clear expert opinion on negligence we will not be bringing cases and we would not bring them,’ he said.
Meanwhile, to quell the public outcry over the scandal both Leo Varadkar and Health Minister Simon Harris gave assurances the State would settle with the women and then sue the laboratories.
However, both politicians have rowed back on these promises even though in the contracts awarded to them the labs agreed to indemnify the State if they made mistakes.
‘It is my duty to mind my clients’