How reliable is our cervical cancer screening programme?

CervicalCheck has detected almost 1,500 cases of cervical cancer since 2008

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that he is "full of sorrow" and "very angry on behalf of the 160 or so women who were not told of the results of the audit" when answering questions on the cervical cancer scandal in the Dáil. Video: Oireachtas TV

Being given the all clear for any cancer screening test is an incredible relief. But what if the results are wrong? And what if you have been diagnosed with cancer but it turns out it should have been detected earlier?

The HSE has confirmed that 208 women diagnosed with cervical cancer had earlier incorrectly been given the all-clear and this is at the core of the current controversy. But the problem is compounded because even though the HSE became aware of the “false negatives” in 2014 – when it audited the test results of women who developed cancer after getting the all-clear – it did not automatically tell all the women their smear test result was incorrect. Seventeen of these women are now dead.

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