According to statistics from the State Claims Agency (SCA), a total of 385 claims have been filed under the CervicalCheck screening program.
The figure represents all those received up to June 1 this year and includes psychological claims made by family members.
The SCA said it could not provide a specific number of cervical screening cases that were resolved based on the nature of the case, explaining, “Some [cases] may be resolved by the laboratories or other third party and the SCA may not be privy to the outcome,” reports Breaking News.
However, the agency confirmed that of the 385 applications received in early June 2023, 183 were active and pending, and 202 had been resolved.
The Supreme Administrative Court added that a claim can be terminated in several ways, including a settlement of the case, a court ruling, compensation received (from co-defendants or third parties), a claim that is time-barred or expired, as well as claims initiated but not pursued.
Many of these claims stemmed from claims that several swabs taken as part of the cervical screening program had been misread, causing some women to receive false-negative results.
Once the problem was identified, an audit of the samples collected as part of the Cervical Inspection Program was performed. 221 of the women’s slides were found to have been misread, but many of these women were either not informed of the audit or had their results corrected, reports Breaking News.
In March 2019, just over a year after Ms. Phelan’s Supreme Court settlement, the government established an ex gratia program for those affected by the non-disclosure of CervicalCheck audits.
“The scheme was designed to provide an alternative, non-adversarial and person-centred option for those affected by the CervicalCheck non-disclosure issue,” the Department of Health said, reports Breaking News.
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