The Ladies with Letters campaign group says they feel like they “are no further forward” following a briefing on the Cytology Screening Review at a health committee meeting on Thursday.
Ladies with Letters was set up after a major review of cervical screening was announced in the Southern Health Trust.
Following the meeting, Enda McGarrity, Director at P.A. Duffy & Co. Solicitors, read out the following statement on behalf of the Ladies with Letters group: “Ladies with Letters was privileged to attend this afternoon’s Health Committee Meeting at Stormont. After listening to the questions put to the Southern Health & Social Care Trust and the Public Health Agency by the Health Committee Members, we feel, as we’re sure the Health Committee do, that we are no further forward.
“Noone has taken accountability for the scandal that happened over 13 years and, as a Group, we still have many questions that remain unanswered – how did this happen, why did it continue for 13 years and who is going to take responsibility?
“Following the Cervical Cytology Review (CCR), two key reports were published by SHSCT and PHA which the Group feels were little more than a whitewashed version of events. Further reports that were due to be published by NHS Scotland, England and Wales have been delayed, adding to the frustration and disappointment felt by many of the ladies we are in contact with.
“It’s important that the women are seen as more than just a statistic. We cannot understand why a statutory public inquiry has not already been initiated, when the Health Minister is aware that failings across the Southern and Western Trust has resulted in 24 ladies developing cervical cancer and two ladies, that we are aware of, losing their lives. The more we have heard today, the more it seems that the whole cervical screening system is in disarray.
“We also remain concerned for those ladies in the Belfast Trust, which covers not only the Belfast area but a vast area from Downpatrick to the Ards Peninsula, who have been subject to similar failings from 2013. A UK Accreditation Services (UKSA) inspection of the Belfast Cervical Cytology lab in 2023 revealed that a number of screening staff employed by this Trust were not meeting the required standard. The inspection found that 9 out of 15 screeners failed to meet standards with one individual not meeting the standard for six consecutive years and another for four years.
“As custodians of the Cervical Screening Programme in Northern Ireland, the Public Health Agency provided no acceptable response to the questions that were asked today. Our firm view is that in order to learn lessons for the future and to restore public confidence in the Cervical Screening Programme in Northern Ireland, we need to establish the full, unvarnished facts of what has happened. This will only happen through a statutory public inquiry which has the power to compel witnesses and evidence from all relevant stakeholders, and more importantly, allow those affected by the scandal to have a voice.”
The Ladies with Letters campaign group attended a Health Committee meeting at Parliament Buildings, Stormont.
Mr McGarrity added: “The failures that have occurred have been on an unprecedented scale. They have occurred over many years and across at least two Trusts and the results have been devastating for thousands of women.
“The attitude of SHSCT and the PHA has been that while some level of wrongdoing is accepted, they are confident that all issues have been identified and are being properly investigated. This is at odds with the lived experience of the Ladies with Letters – a group which now regrettably includes bereaved families, women who are dealing with avoidable cancers and women who remain uncertain about their status and what the future holds for them.
“The DOH is presently dealing with these issues by commissioning a suite of independent reports, many of which are authored by the very bodies who hold responsibility for the failures that they are investigating.
“If the DOH is really serious about identifying the facts of what has happened and ensuring that no one has to experience what the Ladies with Letters have, desktop reports and defensive attitudes will not suffice. A full understanding of the facts and a restoration of public confidence can only be gained by hearing testimony from those who have been directly involved, from the biomedical scientists reviewing the smears tests, to the leadership of the SHSCT and the PHA who were supposed to be overseeing the cervical screening programme.
“Most importantly, the stories of those who have suffered most as a result of these failures must be told, and those stories must inform the changes which follow. Ladies with Letters has engaged with the Minister for Health on these issues for over a year. They have waited long enough, and their patience is wearing thin. Their request is a simple one – the Minister should without further delay establish a statutory public inquiry with full powers to compel evidence, witnesses and which places those who have suffered most at the heart of its work.”
If you have been impacted but the Southern Health and Social Care Trust (SHSCT) cervical screening review and would like further information, contact P.A. Duffy on 028 8772 2102.
