In 2011, Ms. Phelan was given a negative result after a smear test taken that year was negative, but a second test done in 2014 revealed a diagnosis of cancer. Her previous negative test was then reviewed, in accordance with standing procedure, and was found to have in fact strongly indicated the presence of cancer. “Instead she is left with what is now an incurable cancer.”In 2014, a review found that 208 women had received false negative results since 2010, but only 46 of those women were informed. Dr. Grainne Flannelly, the clinical director of the government-run CervicalCheck program, which provides free smear tests to women between 25 and 60, resigned over the weekend. Advertisement Continue reading the main storyIn all, some 1,400 women developed cervical cancer after previously testing negative in smear tests during the 2010-2014 period.

Source: New York Times April 30, 2018 21:30 UTC