Supreme Court hearing key appeal over standard of care for cervical cancer testing

A legal test requiring cervical cancer screeners to have "absolute confidence" before reporting a smear slide as negative would be "totally inappropriate" and have serious implications for women and screening programmes, the Supreme Court has been told.

There is a difference between screening and diagnosis and an absolute confidence test would lead to more false positives and rescreening, Michael Cush SC, for Quest Diagnostics Ireland, said. There was “something frightening” about the word “absolute” and screeners “should not be frightened of the courts”.