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The scandal surrounding the appalling treatment of Vicky Phelan beggars disbelief and a vital question. Is there a heart within the HSE?

For three years health authorities in Ireland knew Vicky was given false information following a cancer smear test but they didn’t tell her.

Worse still, the error was made three years before it was spotted in an audit by CervicalCheck, the national service screening programme funded through the HSE.

For six years, Vicky Phelan could have taken steps to save her life if she knew she had cancer.

(Image: Collins Courts)

Instead, she was at first told she was all clear and then a recheck of her smear test showed she was misinformed. But CervicalCheck kept the information secret until it was forced out in a court action.

Now we learn that several more women who had smears were wrongly informed at first and the information kept from them when the truth later became known.

Some have died. Vicky’s illness is terminal – she was given between six and 12 months in January - but she is still determined to continue fighting for her life.

Her courage in taking her plight to court has already rolled back a blanket of amazing secrecy and revealed vital medical details that were kept from many women.

Others who might not have known their lives were at risk because of hidden files now have an opportunity to take early medical steps in a bid for survival.

Vicky’s case against the HSE was struck out in the High Court, and she was awarded €2.5 million in a settlement with Clinical Pathology Laboratories Inc. in Austin, Texas – which examined her smear but hasn’t admitted liability for misinforming her.

The legal technicalities, however, haven’t succeeded in hiding one of the worst medical scandals in Ireland this century.

Already the CervicalCheck clinical director Dr Grainne Flannelly has stepped down from her post.

Health Minister Simon Harris has been forced to admit he doesn’t know how many women have died because of the cervical smear controversy.

(Image: Gareth Chaney Collins)

Government ministers are talking of steps to avoid a repeat of the appalling way Vicky and other women were treated by the medical authorities.

What I haven’t heard or read in any of the thousands of words of criticism of the scandal is what’s happened to the bedside manner of the HSE. Did it ever have the heart required for a good bedside manner?

The HSE was formed in 2005 to replace a number of health boards and authorities.

It employs more than 100,000 people with a €13 billion annual budget.

Almost since day one it has been at the centre of controversy, usually fighting legal battles with little sign of any heart for patients in court.

Some would say there are too many big chiefs in the organisation who never see a real-life patient. They judge illness through details on a bundle of files and computers.

Somebody should tell them they are supposed to have a heart and are there to try to cure the sick, not to battle them in court.

A good start would be to meet the patients, instead of simply studying their condition on a computer!