It has been revealed that the Minister for Health Simon Harris was informed that Vicky Phelan’s cervical cancer case was not a ‘patient safety incident’ issue.
The startling revalation comes after the the Department of Health published a memo on its website that was issued to Mr Harris before Ms Phelan’s case was settled in court.
In the detailed memo, Minister Harris was informed that the HSE did not consider the case to be a patient safety incident but instead a well known reflection of limitations on the current screening test.
The memo which has raised some eyebrows with those involved in the case, also stated that the main testing process used by CervicalCheck “produces a not insignificant number of false negative results”.
It also informed Minister Harris that the case would most likely see widespread publicity and that a settlement was also a possibility.
The latest development comes after it was revealed on Tuesday that a hundreds of women could be affected by the scandal as Minister Harris confirmed that a lot more cervical cancer patients had not been included in the official audit.