More cancer victims face gruelling court battles
MORE women caught up in the CervicalCheck cancer scandal will face a gruelling court ordeal in their fight for compensation, the Irish Independent can reveal.
An expert group, led by Judge Charles Meenan, was announced by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar earlier this month to look for an “alternative mechanism” of redress and spare women the strain of going to court. However, it has yet to meet. It was due to report in two months, but has now been given additional work to do by the Government and will not have recommendations until February 2019.
Earlier this summer, mother-of-one Ruth Morrissey (37), who has terminal cervical and breast cancer, had to take her case to the High Court after settlement talks failed.
She is suing the HSE, USbased lab Quest Diagnostics, and Irish firm Medlab Pathology, which is fighting the claim. It is expected most cases brought by other women will probably settle, but some will now inevitably go to court.
MORE victims of the Cervical-Check scandal now face a gruelling court ordeal in their fight for compensation, the Irish Independent can reveal.
An expert group, led by Judge Charles Meenan, was announced by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar earlier this month to look for an “alternative mechanism” of redress and spare women the strain of going to court.
However, it has yet to meet. It was due to report in two months, but has now been given additional work to do by the Government and will not have recommendations until February 2019.
Earlier this summer, Ruth Morrissey (37), of Schoolhouse Road, Monaleen, Co Limerick, who has cervical and breast cancer, had to take her case to the High Court after settlement talks failed.
The mother of a seven-yearold girl had smear tests carried out in 2009 and 2012 that were wrongly reported as normal.
She is taking a High Court case, which is due to resume next month, against the HSE, US-based lab Quest Diagnostics and Irish firm Medlab Pathology, which is fighting the claim.
It is expected most cases brought by other women will probably settle, but some will now inevitably go to court.
It comes as public health specialist Dr Gabriel Scally, who was asked to carry out a scoping review of various aspects of the running of Cervical-Check, and the quality of the labs used for screening, is due to deliver his report next month.
Screening
The report, which will go to Health Minister Simon Harris, will be put before Cabinet.
But it is unclear if health officials who could be implicated in its findings will be entitled to a right of response before it is published.
Dr Scally visited the laboratories in the United States which are commissioned by Cervical-Check to carry out screening of Irish women’s smear tests.
He has had access to extensive documentation from the HSE and has also conducted interviews with health officials and the women involved and the bereaved of those who died.
Labour TD Alan Kelly said that before it is circulated to the public it should be given to the women and families at the centre of the scandal.
A spokeswoman for Dr Scally said: “The scoping inquiry is on track to deliver its final report to the Minister for Health in early September.
“It’s then a matter for the minister and Government to determine a date for its publication and the process by which it is published.”
A separate report looking at the quality of screening in the labs will not be ready for at least six months.
Vicky Phelan, the Limerick mother of two whose High Court case first revealed that Cervical-Check had internal audits on women with incorrect test results, has demanded that a full-scale inquiry should follow the Scally report.
This has been promised by the Government, but the setting up of the inquiry is likely to be lengthy. It is also unclear if it will be in public.