The Cervical Check Smear scandal wasnât a scandal at all and mainly a product of the modern media environment.
The story arose from what was a good faith attempt to improve the system - an audit of results.
The main reason it elevated into such a major news story was because of cack handed PR by Cervical Check, the HSE and the government. This cack handed PR arose because Vicky Phelan and other women in the public eye who got cervical cancer such as Emma Mhic Mhathuna and Lynsey Bennett were very difficult to oppose in public. Cervical Check, the HSE and the Government could not be seen to dismiss these women, but as soon as you concede that, you have lost in the public eye.
The women controlled the story and peopleâs natural human empathy meant that most people were immediately 100% on their side, but it also led to an absolute pile on in the media and on social media which created a scenario where major pay-outs were inevitable. It is extremely difficult to in any way âopposeâ women who should be in the prime of their lives who have been struck down by a terminal disease and are extremely articulate and immediately impressive and strong women. If you are seen to in any way âopposeâ their position you are absolutely vilified.
But the brutal truth is despite the best efforts of cancer screening programmes, they are not a test for cancer and they are not foolproof. Smear tests can be very difficult to read and human error also exists. In other countries audits are either not performed or patients are not informed of the results of audits. And you cannot run a cancer screening programme on the basis that every person whose test returns a false negative receives a multi-million euro settlement.
It is my impression too that some of the people who most jumped on the bandwagon on this story oppose the one thing that will most reduce the risk of cervical cancer, which is the HPV vaccine.
Itâs also not popular to say this but Emma Mhic Mhathuna made deeply irresponsible comments when she was on the Late Late Show in May 2018 when she called for women to not bother getting smear tests under the Cervical Check programme because the system was rotten, or words to that effect.
I was deep in the Killinan end of the old stand in Thurles last week for the first time when the place was more or less full.
A few posters have criticised it in the past and I can now support those views. It too narrow. The steps at the end of the exit tunnell are dangerous. The street exit is too far away from those steps. The toliet block is badly positioned.
All in all, it is hard to see how it passes for H&S while other grounds have been reduced.
I donât know how. I have read online the personal stories of certainly hundreds, maybe over a thousand people who suffered detached retinas. In some of those stories, there were fuck ups by opticians or by medical staff. People who assured patients that they were very likely worrying over nothing. But as it turned out, they were not worrying over nothing. Bang, a retinal detachment and fucked up eyesight forever.
I know a fella who was assured he was catastrophising when he told doctors he thought he had cancer in his eye. They told he was fine. He had to literally demand a biopsy, and guess what, he was right, he did have cancer in his eye, and he very nearly lost the eye. He was crocked for three years and is still physically disfigured from it.
These people do not get settlements because illness, illness which ruins lives, is sadly not eliminable and sometimes bad things just happen, and sometimes mistakes happen, or things which are unexpected happen.
The personal stories of people who get hit by an illness which ruins their lives or will ultimately end their lives are always very moving. But these illnesses are not anybodyâs FAULT.
It would take a heart of stone not to be moved by these stories. But does that mean that everybody who got cancer after a false negative in a screening test, be it for cervical cancer or breast cancer or bowel cancer, should be given a multi-million euro payout? How many billions would have to be paid out in that case, because there are surely thousands of such people over the years?
Itâs about negligence ultimately. Medical people or the medical system who are negligent in their care of patients fully deserve what comes to them.
The ânon disclosureâ element of the cervical check scandal which Vicky Phelan blew open was a right nasty clause to throw in. People have a right to know.