Lack of truth on cancer test fiasco is a disgrace

FOR far too long in this country a wall of institutional anonymity has provided an impenetrable screen of secrecy behind which scandal has been allowed to fester. After an agonising drip feed of information, we finally know that 162 women were not informed of a delay in their cancer diagnosis. A total of 17 of these women have died. The cause of death is not yet known.

The incremental way the truth has emerged has been almost as appalling as the treatment of the women.

Remember that Vicki Phelan had to go through a brutal legal mincer to get a settlement. Do not forget that she only discovered her fate by a chance perusal of her notes.

There is a tendency to describe these stories as tragedies, but that is too simple.

What is unfolding is a grotesque national disgrace of which we should all be deeply ashamed.

The director general of the HSE, Tony O’Brien, apologised to the women for the failure to inform them of the delay in diagnosing their cancer.

His apology comes too late for the families of the women who have died.

Forcing sick women to contest for their rights is a familiar refrain. It must end once and for all.

We now know that concerns were raised about the screening programme a decade ago but they were dismissed. We also now know dozens of doctors bickered over whose responsibility it was to inform the women about their results. This in the “caring profession”.

At the national level, the State, in recent days, promised to put a hotline in place to allay the anguished fears of women wanting to know the truth about their health. Yesterday the lines were jammed and many could not get through.

The HSE insists the screening programme is very important. Every woman in the country knows that, but if it is so important it ought not to be failing so terribly. The stock response in State failures is normally an inquiry, followed by a redress scheme. By the time we get to the end of the process many have forgotten that vulnerable people are being trampled on.

We do not want another morbid lottery of jumbled facts and foggy conclusions. What we want is the truth, the one thing these women have been denied all along.