‘Women want answers,’ as cervical cancer screening reports due out

A woman has said she hopes a series of reports into a review of cervical cancer screening within the Southern Health Trust due to be published later will give clarity to women affected.

Heather Thompson, from the campaign group Ladies with Letters, called for a public inquiry into what has been described as a “scandal” within the service, which led to about 17,500 women being approached to have their smear test results rechecked.

The Trust’s own review found eight women whose smear tests were misread by screeners went on to develop cancer.

Letters were sent out by the trust to those impacted and Ms Thompson was among those to receive a letter that their test was affected.

She said the group are striving to “achieve honesty and transparency”.

“We hope that the reports will give some clarity as to what went on but our ultimate goal is to find out who allowed this to happen, why it was allowed to run on for 13 years when nothing was done about it and who is going to take ultimate accountability for this,” Ms Thompson said.

“Until these reports give these answers ladies are not going to settle down and ladies are angry and they’re very frustrated.”

In October 2023, BBC News NI revealed about 17,500 women in Northern Ireland are to have their smear tests re-checked as part of a major review of cervical screening dating back to 2008.

The Ladies With Letters have called for a statutory public inquiry into what happened.

A decision on a public inquiry lies with Health Minister Mike Nesbitt who said this week he had “a next step in mind”.

“We don’t think we’ve got the answers at all. Why we want a statutory public inquiry is that all the stakeholders will be call and they’ll be compelled to attend – that’s the only fair way I think to go forward with this,” Ms Thompson told BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster programme.

“One has to ask themselves – is this a report for reports? We hope it’s not because that will create more frustration when ladies are trying to get answers and closure in this, and that’s just not going to happen until all these answers are on the table.”

The independent reports into the screening programme were commissioned following the Trust’s own conclusions which were published last December.

As well as the eight mentioned, a further 11 women’s slides were found to have pre-cancerous changes in the cells when they were reviewed and had to receive treatment.

All these women had either pre-cancerous changes to their cervix or were diagnosed with another significant gynaecological condition when their smears were reviewed.

The Southern Health Trust apologised to all those affected at the time.

The review into the screening service was triggered when the diagnoses of three women were investigated as a Serious Adverse Incident (SAI).

Two of the women, Lynsey Courtney and Erin Harbinson, have since died.

In October 2023, the Southern Trust announced a precautionary review of the cervical screening results of 17,425 women screened between 2008 – 2021.

The move was in response to an independent Royal College of Pathologists (RCPATH) report which found “persistent underperformance” in the work of some laboratory screeners.