Servical screening labs should be held to account

SIR,

There are women in Ireland dying because of a misdiagnosis in their cervical cancer checks, but the laboratories involved are adopting a “Hell No! We Won’t Pay” stance to fend off the onslaught of women seeking legal redress and compensation from them for their suffering.

They are keeping their chequebooks closed in the hope that the ‘experts’ they have hired will let them off scot-free. Cheap, mean, puny, greedy and spineless are words that come to my mind to describe this scandal that is only adding pure insult to the injury these women have to bear.

Medical screening companies have hired experts to exonerate them from any need to admit a mistake or any other hint of incompetence in processing or diagnosing these cervical cancer tests.

It’s medical bullying – plain and simple. I spent years working in a Wall Street law firm, and I can recognize a strategy to force a settlement from a mile away.

They will try to browbeat these women into accepting an out-of-court settlement that will be but a fraction of what they deserve, all based upon the report of their new experts ready to give evidence against therm.

It’s all done to protect the bottom-line and balance books of the laboratories.

To hell with the women, is what they are really saying.

I say to hell with the laboratories. Drag them into court, and take them for every penny they have. They deserve nothing better.

Yours

Tom Cahill

Ballinskelligs