‘Categorisation error’ left woman fearing cancer diagnosis for two weeks
A MUM of four was left in the dark by the HSE over a previous cancer diagnosis she says she was never made aware of until she read about it in a newspaper this week.
The woman, who doesn’t want to reveal her name, received a letter on September 13 from CervicalCheck asking her if she would like to take part in an independent review by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of women involved in the screening programme before they were ‘diagnosed with cancer’.
The letter also told her it would help her answer questions about her ‘diagnosis’.
She was one of 58 women who have made queries so far about receiving the letter, when they have had no knowledge of a cancer diagnosis.
Shocked by the letter she received, the woman called the helpline number attached who informed her that she was indeed on ‘the registry’ – a reference to the National Cancer Registry Ireland (NCRI).
The lady was left to think the worst for two weeks: that she may have cancer and that she may not have had appropriate treatment.
On Monday, October 1, she was contacted by a leading HSE clinician who informed her that she didn’t have cancer, but that she previously had microinvasive cells in her uterus which is why she needed to take part in the review.
She was also told the letter would be ‘revised’. She claims this official never informed her that microinvasive cells were considered cancerous by the NCRI.
Later in the week, through an article published in the Irish Independent, she was informed that microinvasive cells were considered a form of cancer. HSE spindoctor Paul Connors, who earns a salary of €144,192 a year, called the matter a ‘categorisation issue’.
Speaking with the Irish Mail on Sunday, he said: ‘She’s not technically deemed as having cancer so she wasn’t told she had cancer – technically, as per colposcopists and gynaecologists. They’re categorised by the National Cancer Registry as having cervical cancer so it’s a categorisation issue.’
When asked why this wasn’t considered before letters were sent out, he said: ‘It wasn’t considered because they [the HSE] received a list of all cervical cancer women from the National Cancer Registry and it didn’t differentiate between one or the other.’ When asked if he saw something wrong with that, he said: ‘In hindsight, yeah. These issues do crop up, the bottom line is it doesn’t change their clinical status. I’m sure it’s a shock for women to see they’re included in the RCOG process. The fact is we get back a list and it doesn’t differentiate between those with microinvasive cancer and those with cervical cancer.’
He added that out of the 58 women who made queries ‘the vast majority’ have been told they had microinvasive cancer. No one is said to have cancer now.
Galway woman Lorraine Walsh – who was caught up in the CervicalCheck scandal and is now on the CervicalCheck steering committee – said the lack of information given to women and the way information is communicated has been a problem from the beginning.
She said: ‘Yet again, a complete breakdown in communication. Instead of this process being something that would give you confidence in the system all it has done is shatter women’s confidence in relation to the entire system.
‘It’s unfathomable that they just didn’t share this information with these women or didn’t explain it fully at the time. It’s very upsetting.’
‘It’s unfathomable that they didn’t explain it’