Judgment echoes what we all knew
treating doctor in June 2016. Nobody told Ms Morrissey. Astonishingly, it was not until mid-2018, after Ms Morrissey herself made inquires, following the eruption of the CervicalCheck scandal in the media, that she was informed.
The legal issues in this matter have now been simplified by the Supreme Court in a manner that supports her case.
But the human, interpersonal, respect and dignity issues as practised by a State agency towards people like Ms Morrissey, who went to them for help and reassurance, have been highlighted as well.
And these reveal how far short CervicalCheck fell, how much reputational damage was done and how much trust has to be rebuilt.
In plain language that means, when in doubt, leave it out, something everybody knows.
If the sample is dodgy in any way, or otherwise insufficient, then the decision has to be ‘inconclusive’ for the relevant reasons.
However, if the decision is either positive or negative, such must only be arrived at where there is no doubt at all about the adequacy of the sample.
The Supreme Court judgment also makes clear the harrowing experience Ruth Morrissey and her family have been subjected to. Following her cancer diagnosis in May 2014 the smear tests of both 2009 and 2012 were checked again, showing that the original results were incorrect.
CervicalCheck knew about this in 2015 and told Ms Morrissey’s it to the Supreme Court to make the final decision.
The HSE and the labs were particularly concerned with the High Court finding that screeners should have ‘absolute confidence’ that a smear test sample was adequate and that there was no abnormality before reporting the result as negative. However, dismissing the appeals, the Supreme Court stated: ‘It is clear that all of the relevant witnesses agreed that a screener should not give a clear result in respect of a slide unless they had NO DOUBT (my emphasis) but that the sample was adequate and did not contain any suspicious material.’ IT TOOK the Supreme Court to state the blindingly obvious on Thursday, in its unanimous judgment in the case of CervicalCheck victim Ruth Morrissey.
Ms Morrissey was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2014 despite getting the all-clear in TWO CervicalCheck screenings in 2009 and again in 2012.
Last year, the High Court awarded the Morrisseys over €2.1m against the HSE and two testing laboratories. The defendants appealed, leaving