Tony Holohan says he regrets the failures that occurred during the CervicalCheck scandal.
Lynsey Bennett, a mother of two who is seriously ill with cervical cancer, settled a case against the HSE earlier this week.
She is one of several women who took cases against the health service following false-negative readings from smear tests.
Dr Holohan, the Chief Medical Officer, says he has ‘enormous sympathy’ for the women who have been affected, saying “A very significant harm has been done to people who’ve had the experience over the course of the last number of years, the harm at the centre of CervicalCheck, it’s important that you’re clear on this, 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 information back to individuals, the information wasn’t in fact given to those individuals”.
He adds that the CervicalCheck programme is learning from its previous failures, noting “There’s new, better technology, there are learnings now arising from the handling if you like of the information and the failure to share that information with women in respect of clinical audit”.
Meanwhile, hear how well-known CervicalCheck campaigner and South Kilkenny woman Vicky Phelan’s getting on here
