Health Service Executive (HSE) memos show the organisation was aware in 2016 that CervicalCheck was considering not telling patients about misread smear tests, the solicitor for the woman who exposed the scandal has said. Cian O’Carroll, the Co Tipperary-based solicitor who represented terminally ill Limerick woman Vicky Phelan in her recent High Court case, said that the memos show that the National Screening Service (NSS) had told the HSE that not all women were going to be informed about audits showing revised test results. The memos show the HSE did not view the missed tests and the failure to disclose them to the women as “a patient safety concern,” said Mr O’Carroll. “They show they were contemplating this as a risk management exercise, not a patient safety exercise, which is contemptuous,” said Mr O’Carroll. “I think that makes them culpable in any subsequent mistakes that did arise.”

Source: The Irish Times May 10, 2018 21:11 UTC