Women affected by the CervicalCheck controversy should suffer no delay in receiving their medical records but it was "not as simple as taking a book out of a library", said Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
Mr Varadkar made his remarks after solicitor Cian O’Carroll accused the HSE of “obstructing” one dying woman who is seeking records from CervicalCheck in relation to details of an unreported smear test causing a delay in the diagnosis and the treatment of her cancer.
Mr O'Carroll received the woman's file from CervicalCheck yesterday evening, a day before he planned to seek a High Court order forcing the screening programme to hand over her records.
The woman is among dozens being represented by the solicitor who are still awaiting medical records, some of whom cannot take legal proceedings without them.
Mr O’Carroll criticised the Taoiseach’s remark as “smart alecky”, saying that he did not address the central problem that records simply are not being released by CervicalCheck to some women.
“The Taoiseach doesn’t seem to be adequately concerned that six weeks on people are being refused access to their records. It is a simple process,” said Mr O’Carroll.
The controversy came to light after terminally ill Limerick woman Vicky Phelan settled a High Court action last month after her cancer was missed in a smear test three years before she was diagnosed.
The missed smear test was discovered in 2014, after her diagnosis, but she was not told until 2017.
209 women
A follow-up HSE investigation found that 209 women who were diagnosed with cervical cancer were not told about subsequent audits showing past smear tests could have provided a different outcome.
Asked about the delay in releasing records yesterday, Mr Varadkar said he could not comment on individual cases but said: “There shouldn’t be any delay in providing patients with their medical records.”
He added: “I do appreciate that it is not as simple as taking a book out of a library. Medical records are not often held in one place. They are in different places.”
Records can include lab specimens, and samples and records also need to be reviewed first, because there can be private information in medical records belonging to others, he said.
“Notwithstanding those constraints and those realities, there should be no delay in making medical records and specimens available to people, and that should be done as quickly as possible,” he said.
Mr Varadkar said the State Claims Agency, which handles legal actions against the HSE, will invite people to attend mediation so the women avoid stressful trials. He said many invitations had been issued.
“In some cases there hasn’t been a reply,” he said.
A spokesman for the agency declined to provide an update on the CervicalCheck-related claims facing the State ahead of its officials appearing before the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday.
The HSE has acknowledged delays in responding to solicitors’ correspondence due to the volume of requests but that it was trying to meet its obligations.
