Eight women 'developed cancer after smear test misread'

Eight women whose smear tests were misread by screeners went connected to make cancer, a large reappraisal into cervical screening astatine the Southern Health Trust has found.

A further 11 women whose smear tests were besides misread, were not diagnosed with crab but required attraction and are being intimately monitored.

All these women had either pre-cancerous changes to their cervix oregon were diagnosed with different important gynaecological information erstwhile their smears were reviewed.

The Southern Health Trust has apologised to each those affected.

The reappraisal was triggered erstwhile the diagnoses of 3 women were investigated arsenic a Serious Adverse Incident.

Two of the women, Lynsey Courtney and Erin Harbinson, person since died.

More than 17,000 were approached to person their smear tests rechecked.

The introspection of crab screening astatine the Southern Health Trust implicit 13 years recovered that galore women were failed aft immoderate screeners underperformed and went unchecked by absorption for years.

Stella McLoughlin from the run radical Ladies with Letters described what had happened arsenic unforgivable and called for a nationalist inquiry.

"This has been an implicit ungraded from commencement to decorativeness and was allowed to spell connected for 10 years," she added.

"Smears being misread, radical not being held to account, screeners not being managed decently - each of this is affecting existent people."

The reappraisal of cervical screening successful the spot looked astatine 2 antithetic groups of women.

The archetypal looked astatine the cases of 207 women who had antecedently been diagnosed with cervical cancer.

The 8 women who went connected to make crab had their slides reviewed successful this cohort.

The reappraisal recovered that if their tests had been work correctly they could person been diagnosed and treated earlier.

The 2nd radical included 17,425 women who were asked to instrumentality to person their smears rechecked.

The 11 women who are presently undergoing non-cancerous attraction were portion of this group.

The spot said it could not beryllium concluded that the 8 women had developed crab due to the fact that abnormalities connected their smear tests were missed.

In October 2023, the Southern Trust announced a precautionary reappraisal of the cervical screening results of 17,425 women screened betwixt 2008 - 2021.

The determination was successful effect to an autarkic Royal College of Pathologists (RCPATH) study which recovered "persistent underperformance" successful the enactment of immoderate laboratory screeners.

BBC News NI tin besides uncover that retired of the 4 screeners nether reappraisal astatine slightest 1 screener has been suspended, portion conditions of signifier person been placed connected a 2nd pursuing hearings by the regulatory body, the Health and Care Professions Council.

In an interrogation with BBC News NI, the Southern Trust said it acknowledged this was a hard clip for each of the families and the anxiousness the process had caused.

Medical manager Dr Steve Austin said a immense bulk of the slides checked were normal, but recognised that immoderate women received a antithetic speechmaking and person had to acquisition attraction arsenic a consequence.

"We person learned lessons from everything that has happened. HPV screening is present successful cognition and the laboratory services person present been centralised successful 1 determination and different improvements person been made crossed the system," Dr Austin said.

In February 2023, BBC News NI broke the Southern Trust Cervical scandal erstwhile it reported that a pistillate who was diagnosed with cervical crab had 3 erstwhile abnormal smear tests that were missed.

After being contacted by the pistillate and a whistleblower coming guardant with information, BBC News NI besides revealed that concerns had been raised astir immoderate screeners' show earlier 2022 and that a reappraisal of their enactment was to instrumentality place.

The Southern Trust admitted determination had been "failings" successful the cervical investigating lab, but said it extended beyond idiosyncratic unit members and reflected "wider strategy failings".

Just nether 94% of the women identified took portion successful the review, with the spot locating 513 patients who had moved extracurricular of Northern Ireland.

Director of Public Health astatine the Public Health Agency (PHA) Joanne McClean said atrocious for each the wounded and distress and grief that radical person suffered.

Whether oregon not determination should beryllium a nationalist inquiry, she said, was up to the wellness minister.

The highly captious Royal College of Pathology study recovered a "persistent nonaccomplishment " to tackle underperformance by immoderate cervical screening staff.

It said policies for dealing with mediocre show were beneath modular and the screening laboratory was not sustainable.

Action taken by absorption was inadequate implicit galore years, said the college.

For each of the reappraisal play 2008 – 2021, Northern Ireland utilized cytology-based screening which involves making a descent from the smear trial illustration and looking astatine it nether a microscope.

Cytology screening lone detects astir 3 successful 4 abnormalities.

In December 2023, Northern Ireland caught up with the remainder of the UK erstwhile it introduced superior HPV screening which tests for the beingness of a quality papillomavirus (HPV) which is liable for astir each cases of cervical cancer.

This is simply a much delicate screening method and is expected to find 9 retired of 10 abnormalities.

The findings volition present acquisition an autarkic adept review, with enactment connected this to commence imminently by Allan Wilson, a elder biomedical idiosyncratic astatine NHS Lanarkshire. He has much than 45 years acquisition of moving connected the cervical screening programme successful Scotland.

Based connected those findings, the wellness curate volition determine whether to motorboat a nationalist inquiry.