Representatives of women who received letters informing them they would need their cervical screening smear tests re-checked on Thursday appealed to a health trust board to back their calls for a public inquiry.
Heather Thompson and Tracey Bell. of Ladies with Letters, want the Southern HSC Trust to back a statutory inquiry into what they described as systemic failings.
The group are among 17,500 women living in the trust area who received letters in late 2023 informing them their smear test slides would have to be screened again.
Trust medical director Stephen Austin told a board meeting on Thursday a review of all smear tests taken over a 13 year period will be completed soon, potentially within weeks.
Speaking at the meeting, Ms Thompson said to her group’s knowledge “never has there been a re-check of 17,500 smears undertaken anywhere else in the world”.
“The statistics are stark, but they do not tell the full story. The concerns of women who we represent are significant, far-reaching and largely unresolved as we stand here today,” she added.
“Some remain in limbo awaiting results, and many ladies have lost trust in the system.”
In some cases, women have died after their tests were read incorrectly “and had the opportunity for early detection not been missed, very often on more than one occasion”.
Ms Bell raised the issue of retraining. which a highly critical report from the Royal College of Pathologists’ said was given to screeners.
“So we think that surely their annual appraisals would have established their strengths and weaknesses within their area of work. So then, why was this never acted upon by the Trust?” she said.
Ms Bell added: “While one family in 2018 were given assurances that the death of their precious daughter, due to a misread test, would be addressed and that it would never happen again, another lady later in 2018 was having her routine smear test misread.
“Like many others in that time period, this particular lady went on to lose her life to cervical cancer this year. She also had a test misread in 2012 and also in 2015 – three misread [smear tests] altogether."
She appealed to the board to fully support aninquriy “in light of what has occurred and in the interest of public confidence and safety”.
Chair of the Southern HSC Trust board, Eileen Mullan told the Ladies with Letters representatives: “I know you’ve mentioned how often we have said that we are sorry. We remain sincerely sorry for the anxiety that this has caused.”
