Thread by @thejournal_ie

The Scally Inquiry details some of the ways that women and families were told about the #CervicalCheck audits - the inquiry found the disclosures were handled anywhere from well to badly, to 'very badly indeed'

Dr Scally said: "In my view, the manner in which they were eventually told of their situation in many cases varied from unsatisfactory and inappropriate, to damaging, hurtful and offensive." Here are some examples from his report ... #CervicalCheck

The inquiry was told that at least three of these disclosure meetings were held in the same room where the women had originally been informed of their cancer diagnosis. #CervicalCheck

#CervicalCheck - One of the disclosure meetings happened, by chance, to be in the same room in which the woman’s mother had died.

One woman told the #CervicalCheck inquiry: “When I tried to question my oncologist further on what this meant & if I had cancer 3.5years prior to diagnosis, he shut down, refused to
answer the simplest of questions and ushered me out the door with no
support and many questions.”

The women and relatives were concerned to know why, if the info was available to consultants in 2016/17, they hadn’t been told. They recounted that the attitude & responses of the consultants to the question were negative and defensive. #CervicalCheck

Some of the replies from consultants to the families and women were:
“He said, ‘I withheld information from you.’”
“He said he didn’t know the protocol.”
“He said it had got lost in the file.”
“He said it was caveated not to disclose.” #CervicalCheck

Other women and families told the inquiry the following about their disclosure meetings:
“He basically lied to me.”
“He couldn’t look me in the eye.”
“He had seen I had had a hysterectomy and decided I didn’t need to know.”
#CervicalCheck

One woman recounted her #CervicalCheck disclosure meeting:
Woman: “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you tell my clinicians?”
Consultant: “What difference does it make?”
Woman: “How will I be informed from now on?”
Consultant: “Watch the news.”

In another #CervicalCheck disclosure meeting, the consultant
mentioned several times that the late woman was a smoker and they were also told that ‘nuns don’t get cervical cancer’.

Another woman told Scally: “To think I’ve gone to him over the years and he has said nothing.” #CervicalCheck

In his report, Scally noted the anger of many women and families about how they have been treated in respect of disclosure is intense and raw. #CervicalCheck

Scally has recommended that "a statutory duty of candour must be placed both on individual healthcare
professionals and on the organisations for which they work". #CervicalCheck