Vicky Phelan rejects notion HSE chief first heard of her case last week

Vicky Phelan has said she does not believe HSE director-general Tony O’Brien only learned about her cervical cancer case last week.

“I don’t believe that for one minute. He’s the director-general of the HSE. I do not see how he could not have known about this before then. I don’t believe that,” she said.

Mr O’Brien said on Monday he only learned of the Vicky Phelan case from media reports when she settled her High Court action against a US laboratory last week for €2.5 million.

“I don’t believe that for one minute. He’s the director-general of the HSE. I do not see how he could not have known about this before then. I don’t believe that,” she told RTÉ’s Prime Time on Tuesday night.

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Redacted text of note Harris received about Phelan case

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Ms Phelan, who has terminal cancer, was not told that a 2014 audit revealed abnormal cell activity was missed in a 2011 smear test. She only found this out in 2017.

The Irish Times reported on Tuesday that Minister for Health Simon Harris received a briefing memo on April 16th this year which advised him that Ms Phelan was suing the HSE over non-disclosure of a cervical smear audit result.

The memo said the case against the HSE was likely to be dropped but that Ms Phelan was also taking action against a US laboratory. The case against the HSE was struck out and the case against the laboratory was settled without admission of liability.

‘Massive patient safety issue’

In relation to the memo, Ms Phelan said: “To say people didn’t know the extent of it .. I find that hard to believe. They thought it was just going to go away and that I wouldn’t proceed. I think this has turned into a massive patient safety issue.”

Ms Phelan (43), a mother-of-two from Limerick, said she was “disappointed” but not surprised to see more women have been affected by the scandal.

“I’m disappointed and disheartened to see there are more women involved but I’m not surprised,” she said.

“From the very beginning when I went to see my solicitor, the very first thing I said was that I was not going to sign a confidentiality clause – and that was before I ever knew there were other women involved,” she said.

“I’m so angry about not being told [about the audit result in her case] that I thought, this has to come out. At the back of my mind I did think there were probably other women involved, but I never would have imagined the magnitude of this,” she said.

Ms Phelan confirmed she was contacted by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s press adviser asking to arrange a private meeting with the Taoiseach.

“I said yes, I would meet him in principle, but I’m trying to concentrate on my treatment which I have to go to this week and that I would get back to him,” she said.

Ms Phelan said despite her experience she would urge all women to go for smear tests.

“The one [screening service CervicalCheck] we have now is not fit for purpose, but I do think it is absolutely essential to go and have smears. I don’t want to see more women get cervical cancer,” she said.