[ad_1]
Lorraine Walsh of the advocacy group 221+, which campaigns on behalf of women and families adversely affected by the CervicalCheck controversy, said its members are so disappointed that they had to walk away from the court.
Yesterday, it emerged that the 221+ group had written to the Minister of Health saying that they were withdrawing from any further inquiries about the CervicalCheck Tribunal, describing it as a “useless waste of time”.
The letter was signed by members of the group’s executive committee, including Vicky Phelan, who is receiving ongoing treatment for terminal cancer.
In a statement, 221+ said that it had written to the Minister of Health to “end the exchanges regarding the CervicalCheck Tribunal and express our utter frustration at the pointless waste of time it has been during the last three weeks.”
They were followed by a letter from Minister Stephen Donnelly saying that he “acknowledged that it has not been possible to comply with the requested adjustments in the operation of the court with respect to the statute of limitations or the issue of recidivism.”
Speaking today, Ms. Walsh said once again that women feel they are not being listened to and that their concerns are continually being ignored.
She said there were fundamental issues of concern about the court for affected women.
The first is that if a woman’s cancer returns and is terminal, they cannot go back to court. And also, for women to apply before the court, they must have already applied to the Superior Courts to have their case heard.
“Any woman in the original 221 group who has not done this is excluded by court law and hasn’t even started yet. It’s just amazing,” said Ms Walsh.
We need your consent to upload this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage additional content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Review your data and accept it to load the content.Manage preferences
Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane said it would be “really troublesome” if the CervicalCheck Court went ahead without addressing the concerns raised by advocacy group 221+.
“What we have to focus on is trying to find solutions,” Cullinane told RTÉ News.
“If solutions cannot be found, I think it is really problematic that we have a court that does not have the trust of women and their families,” she said.
“The Tribunal process must have its [victims] full confidence, and it appears that at this point that is not the case, “Cullinane said.
He added that it is up to the Minister of Health to find solutions to all these problems.
Labor Party leader Alan Kelly tweeted: “It’s so bad we got to this despite the commitments Micheál Martin and Stephen Donnelly gave me repeatedly.”
Lorraine Walsh is a founding member of the 221+ CervicalCheck Patient Support Group.
At the age of 34, Ms. Walsh was diagnosed with cervical cancer and later discovered that an incorrect reading of her smear test delayed her diagnosis.
Group 221+ takes its name from the original number of women identified as having received incorrect smear test results and who developed cancer, in a retrospective audit conducted by the HSE in 2018.
The CervicalCheck Court was promised in December 2018, nine months after Vicky Phelan’s € 2.5 million High Court settlement against a US laboratory, which drew attention to the fact that the patients had been diagnosed with cancer after receiving false negative smear test results.
The Court was established last month, but was stopped as a result of concerns raised by group 221+, of which Ms. Phelan is also a founding member.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland last month, Ms Phelan described the plans for the court as “not fit for purpose” and as a “slap in the face” for the women involved.
[ad_2]