CMO: 'I have a huge amount of regret’ over Cervical Check controversy

Dr Holohan described the lack of feed-back to women on the audits of their slides as a “failure” and stressed this did not impact on their treatment. Picture: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie

- Additional Reporting: Michelle Devane, PA

Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan has said he has "a huge amount of regret" over the Cervical Check scandal.  

Asked at this evening's public health briefing if he would apologise to the women caught up in the scandal, the CMO said the government has apologised.

“I have a huge amount of regret for what happened to women in those circumstances. I have enormous sympathy for the women concerned,” he said.

Dr Holohan described the lack of feed-back to women on the audits of their slides as a “failure” and stressed this did not impact on their treatment. 

He added this failure “was something that simply shouldn’t have happened” He said the review by Dr Gabriel Scally was when it became clear Vicky Phelans experience was not unique.

He described the failure to inform the women of the clinical audit of their screening as “wrong” and that it “simply should not have happened”.

On Wednesday, Lynsey Bennett, a 32-year-old mother-of-two who is seriously ill with cervical cancer settled a High Court action over alleged misinterpretation of cervical smears.

There was settlement but no admission of liability. A letter of regret was read out in the court from the head of the Cervical Check national screening programme but there was no apology.

It is two years since the controversy came to light after Limerick mother Vicky Phelan brought a case before the courts.

“Each women in that situation believed and had every reason to believe that this information would be shared.

“It wasn’t shared so the failure, which was at the centre of the Cervical Check, the failure to feed back the information that was gleaned from retrospective clinical audit was something that simply shouldn’t have happened.”

Dr Holohan also said: “A very significant harm has been done to people who have had the experience over the course of the last number of years.

“The harm at the centre of cervical check was that there was not disclosure to women of the findings of a retrospective clinical audit of their care.

“Where there was a commitment to give that commitment back to individuals the information wasn’t in fact given to those individuals.

“There was significant hurt for those individuals.”