The Health Minister, Mike Nesbitt, yesterday ordered a further review be undertaken into the cervical smear scandal at the Southern Health and Social Care Trust, despite three such reports already having been published to date.
Yesterday saw the publication of two reports into the Trust’s handing of underperformance by those undertaking cervical screening and the Serious Adverse Incident process, along with a third report into the actions of the Public Health Agency. The reports concluded that the Trust’s handling of the disclosure process, which involved notifying women about what had happened, was badly handled. It was found that staffing levels in the laboratory responsible for screening within the Southern Trust were insufficient to deal with the workload and that the quality of service suffered as a result. Many of the findings in the reports are not new, but they do confirm that not only were there failings on the part of individual screeners, but also that the management of the issue by the Southern Trust and how these events were handled fell short as well.
Campaign groups had hoped that the publication of these reports would lead to the announcement of a statutory public inquiry into the scandal, but the Health Minister has instead ordered a further review of screening failures to be undertaken by Professor Sir Frank Atherton, which will be carried out in early 2026. This further delay only prolongs the suffering of the 17,500 women affected by this scandal. The review into their cervical screening results was first ordered in October 2023. Two years down the line, a Serious Adverse Incident report has been completed, along with a number of reports including the three published yesterday. What benefit a further report instead of a public inquiry will bring to the table at this stage is highly questionable, leaving campaigners to query whether this is simply further stalling over the issue of an inquiry by the Health Minister. At O’Reilly Stewart, we continue to support the requests by the women affected that the Health Minister arrange a statutory public inquiry as a matter of urgency so that these issues can be given the proper consideration that victims deserve.