In the two weeks since the cervical screening controversy broke, O’Brien had insisted he would not resign. It is perhaps ironic that it was a scandal in cervical screening that ultimately led to O’Brien’s departure. Screening was effectively his background in the health service. At various times he was chief executive of the National Cancer Screening Service, interim director of the National Cancer Control Programme and director of both BreastCheck and CervicalCheck, the national breast and cervical cancer screening programmes. He told the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday that the cervical screening programme had detected 50,000 high-grade abnormalities and had led to the avoidance of hundreds of incidents of cervical cancer among women.

Source: The Irish Times May 12, 2018 04:52 UTC