One of the women in the original group affected by the CervicalCheck crisis has said that a process of mediation to rebuild relationships with clinicians is important.
Lorraine Walsh from Mayo said that the 221+ CervicalCheck Patient Support Group will be writing to the Medical Council, the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons and leaders of medical organisations as well as representatives of the women and families involved.
She said it would be an invitation to come together with appropriate mediation to reestablish relationships to create a better future for patients and their clinicians.
Mrs Walsh, who was appointed by the Minister for Health to the CervicalCheck Steering Committee was addressing a meeting of the Royal College of Physicians today on the lessons from the Scally inquiry.
Recommendation 50 from the inquiry recommended that the Department of Health encourage such a meeting.
RCPI President Professor Mary Horgan said it was important that where the trust between a patient and their doctor has been damaged that this can be restored.
She called on the Government, healthcare professionals and advocates to unite to support the eradication of cervical cancer.
She said this can be achieved within the next few decades, through vaccination against the HPV virus which causes cervical cancer and HPV testing of cervical cells.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Speaking at the conference, Minister for Health, Simon Harris said there were many lessons from the Scally Inquiry.
He said that many people believed that when a woman, who has been screened as negative is diagnosed with cervical cancer, that automatically means negligence.
Mr Harris said that thanks to the Scally Report, there is much greater awareness now of the complexities involved.
He also said that the Government and the political system had lessons to learn, as did the health service, the medical profession and the media.
He also said that he had personally made mistakes and there were dangers of demands for action and decision making in an information vacuum.
