Emma Mhic Mhathúna: A brave life but a needless death

Emma Mhic Mhathúna, one of the women at the centre of the cervical cancer controversy, died in Kerry yesterday.

She had five children and was one of 221 women with cervical cancer found to have been given incorrect test results during a clinical audit by the CervicalCheck screening programme.

During the summer she revealed that her cancer had spread to her brain.

“I’m dying because of human error and that’s disgusting,” she declared.

It is impossible to disagree with her and not to admire the courage she and other women, especially Limerick woman Vicky Phelan, showed in the face of such unrelenting, unforgiving challenge.

The scandal led to the Scally report which was a sober account of a profound failure by’s health services.

That report also reported an unacceptable callousness among some of the medical profession.

This reopened the controversy around mandatory open disclosure in the health service.

Last year, a provision for mandatory open disclosure was in a bill passed by the Seanad, but it was later diluted allowing for voluntary open disclosure, which, of course, is not open disclosure at all.

Ms Mhic Mhathúna’s death is a tragedy.

It underlines why Government must insist that the common good prevails and that all professions be held accountable in a way that reduces risk to vulnerable service users.

The culture of secrecy and collusion must end if only to honour these wasted lives.