VICKY Phelan, the Limerick woman who lifted the lid on the Cervical Check cancer screening scandal, and other women affected by the issue were not given a preview of important new report despite assurances from Health Minister Simon Harris.
Ms Phelan has been diagnosed with terminal cancer but was not told for three years that an audit of cervical tests had revealed that abnormalities had been missed.
This Tuesday, Irish newspapers published an outline of what was contained in the report drawn up by the independent expert, Dr Gabriel Scally, despite promises that the women affected and their families would have sight of it before it was put into the public arena.
Lorraine Walsh, one of two patients representatives appointed by Health Minister Simon Harris to a steering committee tasked with overseeing changes to the screening programme, said in an interview with RTE that Vicky Phelan and other women had been re-organising personal commitments to meet Dr Scally ahead of the publication of the report on Wednesday.
She said: “I know Vicky was due to have treatment, her life-saving treatment in Dublin, and she was trying to change that so she could be briefed by Dr Gabriel Scally.
Ms Walsh said the group was already “emotionally charged” ahead of the report being published and the leak was very upsetting.
“It had been confirmed to us yesterday by Gabriel Scally and the minister that we would be briefed prior to the report going to Cabinet or published.
“And to wake up this morning and to see news of it all over the papers, it’s just heartbreaking.
“It’s just so disappointing that throughout this whole experience the main information source that we have is the media.”
The report contains a series of recommendations concerning the need to review screening services and governance issues and open disclosure to any person affected by issues connected with the programme in the future.
Long and short-term measures have been recommended in the report but Dr Scally has said that a commission of investigation into the CervicalCheck crisis does not need to be established.
