Irish Examiner View: Dumping of Scally won't inspire confidence in CervicalCheck reform

Dr Gabriel Scally has been central to the reform of the CervicalCheck process. Picture: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie

There was confusion yesterday over the position of Dr Gabriel Scally and whether he was still involved in providing progress updates to the Department of Health on the process of fixing the CervicalCheck screening programme, which has not been completed fully.

What was described in the Dáil as the effective "dumping" of Dr Scally is bound to unnerve CervicalCheck campaigners, not least among them the women directly affected who are acutely aware that 22 of his 170 recommendations remain to be implemented.

The issue was raised in the Dáil by Labour Party leader Alan Kelly. He asked Taoiseach Micheál Martin: “Why has the Government dumped Dr Gabriel Scally from overseeing implementations and recommendations of the CervicalCheck report that he did?” The Taoiseach responded by denying that Dr Scally had been dumped, remarking cryptically: “It hasn’t come before Government in terms of any formal decision.” 

The Department of Health initially told the Irish Examiner that Dr Scally had "fulfilled his commitments to the process" only for Health Minister Stephen Donnelly to later state that he was “fully supportive” of Dr Scally remaining involved in the CervicalCheck review.

The absence of one of the people central to the reform of the CervicalCheck process will hardly inspire confidence in those dozens of women directly affected, many of whom remain gravely ill — or the families of those have already died. It has been their heroic efforts in highlighting the scandal and Dr Scally’s determination to bring about reform that helped lead to the establishment late last year of the CervicalCheck tribunal. That tribunal was set up so the women affected could have their cases heard without having to go to court but, considering the distrust still prevalent, it is hardly surprising that it has still to receive a single claim.

The Department of Health cites the complex nature of claims and the significance of a decision to transfer cases from court as the reasons why it will take some time before the tribunal receives claims in any significant volumes. That may be so, but trust is surely a major contributory factor. Apart from the tribunal, there is a general lack of trust in our screening programmes and, according to CervicalCheck clinical director Dr Nóirín Russell, this is causing women to put their lives and health at risk. Some, she says, are even turning to “weird and wacky” treatments instead.

It is worth recalling that the CervicalCheck controversy arose when Vicky Phelan, now a prominent campaigner, settled a High Court case against a US laboratory that had been subcontracted by CervicalCheck. She was one of several women with cervical cancer who were not told that smear tests, showing them to be clear of cancer, were inaccurate. The revised test results were kept from them for years.

In May 2018, Dr Scally, the former director of public health for Belfast and professor of public health at the University of Bristol, was tasked with carrying out a scoping inquiry into the CervicalCheck controversy. He met with the women affected and, in his report, he focused on the failure to disclose the results of the retrospective audit to those who had been diagnosed with cervical cancer. He praised “the extraordinary determination of Vicky Phelan not to be silenced”.

Let us hope that he retains a similar determination not to be silenced.