The HSE knew about smear test errors when Varadkar was health minister


The Health Service Executive knew in 2016 about smear test errors and planned about a strategy to response for hypothetical headlines like “screening did not diagnose my cancer”. Three memos about this issue were written in 2016 and the main objective of those were create a “communications protocol” to protect the reputation of the HSE smear test program.
The memos can be sum up in 4 points: Pause all the letters to the women affected; await advice of solicitors; decide on the order and volume of the letters dispatch to mitigate any potential risks and continue to prepare reactive communications response for the future media headlines that now appears in TV, radio and newspapers.
Finally HSE director general Tony O’Brian resigned last Thursday after the pressure that ask him for leave. Also, the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar talk in a video published in the social media about the measures that government will take including medical cards to all women and provide some practical supports like transport for hospital appointments. In cases where the women have passed away, medical cards will be provided for their next of kin. Meanwhile, new testimonies like the Vicky Phelan one emerge.
Is the case of 37 year old Emma Mhic Mhathúna that was one of the 209 women affected in the CervicalCheck scandal and now knows that her illness is terminal. This mother-of-five from Co Kerry told the Irish Independent that she is furious, "The time for talk is gone, It's time for action, consequences and new legislation, It's time for a snap election because this Government, this State is not minding me and my children or any other women and children in this country" she said.

When there’s only two weeks for the abortion referendum it’s not sure how this scandal can affect the result. Last week in a Herald’s opinion article, Andrew Lynch said that “Pro-choice campaigners are already using it to argue that Irish women deserve more control over their bodies, while pro-lifers say it shows the HSE is simply too incompetent to run a humane abortion regime”.

Ubicación: Dublin, Ireland

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