Cancer scandal: 48 hours to inform women

Senior health service officials have been ordered to identify and inform within the next 48 hours the 206 women who were wrongly told they did not have cervical cancer, amid fears over the fallout from the scandal.

Health Minister Simon Harris confirmed he has sent an incident team in to the CervicalCheck cancer service to “take charge of the situation” as he admitted he does not have confidence in existing managers to perform their duties.

Speaking as the HSE refused to say if any of the 206 women whose cervical cancer was not identified have died or have now been diagnosed with terminal cancer, Mr Harris said he wants any victim of what happened to be identified as a matter of urgency.