Smear Test Scandal

Roger_007 wrote: »

Am I the only one who thinks that this award is massively out of proportion. If this is now the benchmark award for errors made in mass screening tests then we are going down a dangerous road. First, the smear test cases will have to be settled and then as sure as night follows day, all errors made in other screening programs such as Breast Check and the bowel cancer check, will have to be settled in the same way.
This is utter madness. No mass screening regime is 100% error-free. This will eventually cost us billions and reduce the money available to the rest of the health service.
I know my opinion won't be popular.

Surely it's for the cover up, not the error in result.

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

You are dying looking at your children knowing that you will never watch them grow up

How much would you pay to make that nightmare you can't wake up from go away?

Whatever any of these women want they get as far as I am concerned

And as Emma said her children would much prefer to have a mother and no money . At least she can know her children will have a fund to help them in time

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

You are dying looking at your children knowing that you will never watch them grow up

How much would you pay to make that nightmare you can't wake up from go away?

Whatever any of these women want they get as far as I am concerned

So the State should pay out for every terminal cancer diagnosis then? Is that what you are saying? It's fine if you are, but it's important to be clear.

Roger_007 wrote: »

......................This will eventually cost us billions and reduce the money available to the rest of the health service.
I know my opinion won't be popular.

They're well capable of that even before this :

https://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/revealed-500m-bill-for-hospital-negligence-451883.html


Settlement and compensation payouts by the State to victims of “negligence, incompetence, and neglect” in Irish hospitals have totalled almost €500m since 2011, the Irish Examiner can reveal.

.

Can see myself going off the rails on those millions if I were her kid

Another settlement today - €2 million to a lady who has maintained her anonymity.

jmayo wrote: »

Yeah, but in this case the screening program was not up to standard, and experts resigned in protest when the system was being put into operation.
And then when it was found out it was making serious cockups the HSE tried to stage manage the release and non release of information to the victims i.e THE FOOKING COVERUP.
Also even after story broke they were not releasing information to victims.



See above.



She has 5 children, 4 boys and a girl.
Only one of the children, the girl, at the moment is anywhere near finishing secondary school.

A lot of the money is going to be used to fund their envisaged education.
College costs also need to be factored into it.

They are not going to be handed wads of cash. :rolleyes:

Where is this the evidence that the programme wasn't up to standard? I haven't seen anything confirming that. So far the settlements that have been made public highlight the only fault on the State being the failure to notify women of the results of the clinical audit.

iamwhoiam wrote: »

Vicky Phelen sued the US company Quest who was responsible for her false negative test . And won


https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/cervical-smear-contract-to-us-labs-awarded-for-cheapest-price-documents-suggest-841141.html

And?

Topgear on Dave wrote: »

This is where it all gets complicated I suppose.

https://www.rte.ie/news/courts/2018/0425/957122-vicky-phelan/

The case was "settled without admission of liability".

and even if they accepted liability, that doesn't confirm, suggest or otherwise that the Screening Programme was not up to Standard

iamwhoiam wrote: »

And so the settlements were not just for a cover up they were for test company incompetence . They made a mistake in her testing and so Vicky won her case

The settlements weren't for a cover up because no cover up has been proved. Secondly, whether a mistake was made or not it doesn't confirm the programme (or indeed an individual lab) was not up to standard.

iamwhoiam wrote: »

No I guess it doesn't prove it . But the large settlement was an indication of it in my opinion
Either way Vicky , Emma and many others have my full support and respect

How does it?

And absolutely no one is saying anything about supporting or not supporting the women involved.

jmayo wrote: »

Well then why did the likes of Dr Gibbons, chair of the cytology/histology group within the quality assurance committee of the National Cervical Screening Programme, resign in protest at the proposed system when it was being setup ?



See referenced section of memo

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/pause-all-letters-cervicalcheck-briefing-memo-to-hse-1.3490887

Now you of course will claim that was not a cover up but it was trying to manage the dissemination of information to affected parties (i.e. victims) so that the "cervical check system" was not compromised.

Now it wasn't outright lying and withholding information ala your true cover up, but it was damn well a cover up of sorts where they were withholding information from women that were probably terminally ill.

He resigned because he was in disagreement with the then proposed approach is my understanding. Professional disagreements happen all the time. It doesn't mean though that the programme failed to reach standards one would expect. The Scally Inquiry however will provide some answers. I'm going to wait until that report before starting to jump to conclusions and conspiracy theories. The screening programme is a vital women's health initiative and I think generally we all need to be very careful without our facts and our conclusions and not be conflating and jumping to conclusions based on isolated and other issues.

Did you watch and/or read the evidence but to the public accounts committee in relation to the Memos? A very plausible position was put across as to the content of that memo and what your quoted piece referred to. I don't believe their was a cover up and I've seen zero evidence of that. What I have seen is bureaucracy at its worst though which greatly contributed to the delay in informing the women of their audit results. However all of the evidence that I've seen shows that very active conversations were being had about how to inform women, in an informed way without also undermining the importance of the Screening Programme. Those conversations took too long and nobody appears to have had defined responsibility for ensuring an outcome.

If you have some other evidence that I haven't seen or I've missed then throw it up here and we can discuss it.

EmptyTree wrote: »

News just breaking on RTE lunchtime news, Emma Mhic Mhathúna passed away this morning.

Feel very sad for her family.

RIP.

Yeah, saw that this evening-an early death that should never have happened.

Condolences to her family. RIP.

That is so sad Emma was a wonderful woman and an inspiration, incredibly strong.

RIP