The widower of a woman who lost her life from cervical cancer has accused the HSE of “insulting” families like his.
Irene Teap was one of a number of women who died after the health service failed to correctly diagnose that she had cancer.
Her husband Stephen has thrown himself into campaigning and has taken issue with a recently published ‘Guide to Talking about Cervical Screening’ published by the HSE.
The document contains a number of remarks by public health expert Dr Gabriel Scally who undertook a Scoping Inquiry into the CervicalCheck Screening Programme in 2018. However, Mr Teap says the HSE has misrepresented Dr Scally’s conclusions:
“They are cherry picking items on page nine on this document from Dr Gabriel Scally,” he told The Pat Kenny Show.
“They’re cherry picking bits that they only want us to read and while doing so, they’re brushing under the carpet the problems that actually went on.
“All of the issues of the outsourcing of labs, lack of governance, procurement issues, no quality assurance and so on.”
Mr Teap said he is “fuming” and that one particular line has upset him:
“They say he [Dr Scally] ‘confirmed the screening programme was effective’.
“As you know from talking about this previously and many of your listeners would know, Dr Scally didn’t say that.
“Dr Scally said the system was ‘doomed to fail’. Those were his words.”
Sign for the Irish Health Service Executive (HSE).'Insulting and hurtful'
Mr Teap added that there was no consultation with patient groups and claimed that the document was “done in the background and published behind everyone’s backs.”
“If the screening programme was effective,” he continued, “Irene would be alive today - and that’s a fact.
“This is how this is insulting to my family but also to the likes of Emma Mhic Mhathúna’s family who got liability admitted by all the parties in her case. She would be alive today if the screening programme was ‘effective’.”
He added:
“This language that they use, this document that they’ve put together is nothing more than insulting and hurtful to all of us involved in this.
“Particularly those of who have been working so closely to try and rebuild trust by pushing the HSE and the Department of Health on implementing Dr Gabriel Scally’s implementation plan.”
In a statement the HSE said:
"We would never wish to add to the distress or trauma of anyone affected by cervical cancer, especially the people in the 221+ group.
"We work very well with the 221+ group and are currently collaborating with them as we create a new process whereby women who have been diagnosed with cancer after screening can ask to have their screening history reviewed in a protected, compassionate and non-adversarial way.
"We have received the group’s correspondence about the media guide, and we have offered and agreed to meet where we will listen very carefully to their concerns."
Main image: A screening for cervical cancer. Picture by: Alamy.com
