4,000 ‘kept in dark’ on CervicalCheck

By Evelyn Ring, Joyce Fegan and Fiachra Ó Cionnaith

A “huge communications failure” is how the latest CervicalCheck scandal, which left thousands of women in the dark for months about their test results, is described in a damning report.

More than 4,000 women affected by an information technology problem were not told that it led to a failure to inform them of their smear test results.

Professor Brian MacCraith, who conducted a rapid review for the HSE, found that women were frustrated by poor service and a lack of information.

That was most evident in the decision not to communicate with women about IT problems in a Quest Diagnostics’ laboratory in Chantilly in the US for six months this year.

He found that women were frustrated, not only by delays in receiving their results but more so by the lack of any “clarifying or contextual” information.

Mr MacCraith said the woman, known as ‘Sharon’, who told her story exemplified the experiences of the women affected.

Before the review, the predicted number of women affected was 800, five times lower than the 4,088 whose samples were sent to the US laboratory.

In the case of 873 women, no results were sent to them or their GP and in the remaining 3,215 cases, the results were sent to GPs but not the women.

According to the review, there are too few people in CervicalCehck handling too many significant projects.

Mr MacCraith said CervicalCheck needed to be strengthened and adopt a “women-first” approach as a matter of priority.

He said the feasibility of sample tracking at every stage of the process should be pursued actively.

“Human resource needs to be dedicated solely to this women first approach,” Mr MacCraith recommended.

The HSE, with Government support, needed to accelerate progress towards the establishment of a national laboratory for cervical testing, he added.

“This will remove Ireland’s current high-risk dependence on a single outsourced supplier,” he said.

Mr MacCraith recommends the HSE acts quickly to ensure CervicalCheck becomes a well-structured organisation and recruitment is given the highest priority.

He said the important role of patient representatives should be addressed — it should be placed on a more stable footing and have improved relationships with all relevant elements of the healthcare system.

The HSE said it “accepted entirely” the findings of the MacCraith review.

The health authority’s chief executive, Paul Reid, stated: “The HSE commits to a careful and expeditious implementation in full of each of his recommendations.”

Corkman Stephen Teap, an advocate for women and their families affected by the CervicalCheck debacle, welcomed the report.

His wife, Irene, who had cervical cancer, died just over two years ago. Her cancer was missed by two smear tests.

“I do appreciate the apology but there is still a long way to go,” said Mr Teap.

Mr Teap is a member of the group 221+ representing people whose lives have been affected by the failings of CervicalCheck.

The group welcomed the HSE’s promise of stronger structures and management of screening services.

“While this report elaborates on the shortcomings that led to this debacle, our members are still angry and hurt,” said a statement from 221+. “They want to believe that what happened them won’t happen others.”

Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil’s health spokesman Stephen Donnelly was “flabbergasted” that CervicalCheck controversies continued after all that happened in 2018. Given the failures to communicate in previous years, how could this situation be allowed to happen again, he asked.

“It is simply outrageous and frankly incomprehensible,” he said.

It is symptomatic of a complete aversion to open disclosure.