When patients are let down by health service failings, the damage can be compounded by the failure of medics and managers to be open with them about what happened. One group is trying to teach healthcare professionals why the principle of ‘first do no harm’ should apply not only to the practice of medicine but to the management of mistakes too, writes Caroline O’Doherty

Gynaecology services have been “on the back foot in Ireland” for a long time, with women, often elderly, left “sitting on waiting lists” with debilitating conditions such as prolapsed wombs, according to the first female chair of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

Alison O’Connor (Irish Examiner, September 14) may well be right about how Dr Gabriel Scally’s CervicalCheck report is a classic of its kind, and thank goodness there was no tribunal instead.

The Scally Report into the CervicalCheck scandal has again highlighted the need for genuine apologies in cases of medical error, argues Mary-Elizabeth Tumelty.

You’re too young to have seen the movie. Of course you are. 

Individual doctors must face sanctions over the shocking way they treated women impacted by the CervicalCheck scandal, the Irish Patients’ Association has said.

Latest: The HSE has welcomed Dr Scally's report of the Scoping Inquiry, saying the "impact of this failure has been profound".

Fianna Fáil have said they will be guided by women and families on whether there should be a larger investigation into the cervical cancer controversy.

The Scally Report into the CervicalCheck scandal was published today.

If avoiding a commission of investigation was the motivation behind leaking part of the Scally Inquiry, it is now likely to achieve the exact opposite.

Cancer services will be ordered to make short- and long-term changes to their use of laboratories and to review the work of other screening services as part of the Scally report into the cervical cancer tests scandal.

There are calls for the Government to assure women and families affected by the CervicalCheck scandal that they will see the Scally report before it is published.