Vicky Phelan changed Irish healthcare completely, says Cervical Check investigator

The Government-appointed investigator into the Cervical Check controversy said Vicky Phelan had changed Irish healthcare completely and “shifted the agenda markedly.”

Paying tribute to Ms Phelan, Dr Gabriel Scally said in the decades to come, her contribution would be recognised “as having changed the landscape completely in healthcare in Ireland”.

“The big thing she was interested in was people being dealt with honesty and openly and having access to their own information and being told the truth, particularly when things go wrong in healthcare and that they should be treated properly,” he told The Irish Times.

Ms Phelan had “moved on cervical cancer eradication in Ireland enormously”, had “done us all a big service” and had “shifted the agenda markedly,” he said.

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“There is still work to do and no one knew that more than Vicky about the legal system and the way in which we don’t allow people to complain about their healthcare,” said Dr Scally.

The campaigner died on Monday aged 48 at Millford Care Centre in Limerick.

[ Cervical cancer campaigner Vicky Phelan dies aged 48 ]

[ Vicky Phelan was a ‘force for truth and honesty’, her solicitor says ]

She settled a High Court action for €2.5 million, without admission of liability, against Clinical Pathology Labs, a US laboratory that had been subcontracted by the CervicalCheck national screening programme to assess her smear test results.

She refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement in the settlement of her case.

Dr Scally recalled meeting Ms Phelan the day after he was appointed to investigate why dozens of women were not told about a review of their screening results.

The Kilkenny woman was in hospital and in a treatment room but she was “absolutely determined” to make her contribution to his investigation in what had happened.

“She told me about the details of the court case and how there was an expectation that she and her husband would potentially take the stand and give evidence of the cervical cancer on their sex lives,” he said.

“I just could not believe that in this day and age that this was being inflicted upon patients. It is a barbaric system where people have to be dragged through the courts in order to find out a glimmer of the truth about what has happened to them when something goes wrong.”

Dr Scally said that cervical screening was “in a better place because of her”.

“We should look at her contribution not just in terms of cervical cancer but the whole issue of a duty of candour about truth telling that patients and families, when something goes wrong, must be told the truth and they must have an opportunity to receive an apology,” he said.

“They also need to know that the health service will be there and that there will be a mechanism if they have suffered failures in the system that they will be compensated as well without the gladiatorial system of the courts getting in the way of grace and compassionate.”

Dr Scally said he was “so sad” at Ms Phelan’s passing but felt “so privileged to have met her and worked with her around cervical cancer.”

“It was an honour,” he added.