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PATIENTS WHO HAVE had a cancer diagnosis either missed or mishandled may not necessarily have been informed as to that fact by their doctor, it has emerged.
The fallout of the case of Vicky Phelan, a Limerick mother-of-two who had her cervical cancer misdiagnosed following a screening in 2011, and who wasn’t informed until last year despite the information coming to light following a 2014 audit, is causing shockwaves.
Yesterday, 43-year-old Phelan settled a damages claim with the HSE for €2.5 million. Her cancer is now terminal. In January of this year she was given between six and 12 months to live.
Speaking outside court yesterday, she said that her case was “unforgivable” and an “appalling breach of trust”.
“There are no winners here today. I’m terminally ill and my cancer is incurable. The women of Ireland can no longer put trust in the cervical check programme,” she said.
Phelan’s misdiagnosis first came to light in 2014 following an audit of all smear tests. Separately, the same year, she underwent a second smear test which revealed she had cervical cancer.
Her doctor wasn’t told about her misdiagnosis dating from 2011 until 2016, and she herself wasn’t informed until a further year had passed.
Speaking to RTÉ Morning Ireland today, head of the National Cancer Control Programme Dr Jerome Coffey said that the cervical smear test “is not perfect”.
He argued that the clinical audit of smear tests is now more functional, with the “time factor much reduced”. Physicians are now informed “within two to three months” as to a patient’s status he said.
Asked repeatedly whether or not doctors have an obligation to tell their patients what the results are, Coffey conceded that decision is “between the physician and the patient”.
“To my knowledge all information as recent as February of this year has been communicated to treating physicians,” he said.
“I don’t have that information,” he conceded when asked how many patients had been told, rather than just their doctors.
Speaking to RTÉ DriveTime yesterday, Phelan’s solicitor Cian O’Carroll suggested that via the clinical audit it has emerged that as many as 15 more women may have had cancer diagnoses missed.
“I don’t have those figures here today,” said Coffey when asked about that issue.
All cases from 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 have been reviewed and the information is back with the treating physicians.
Asked once more whether or not patients should be told, he said:
In modern medicine, I ask patients how much information they want, and if they want it all I print it out and give it to them there and then.
“It’s important to remember that this is fundamentally a strong, well-organised, well-resourced screening programme,” he said.
“It’s important that people keep attending as it can help reduce instances of this cancer by as much as 90%.”
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She got out easy enough but getting back into Trump’s America now might be a little tricker.
@winston smith: won’t be a problem, Trump likes grabbing pussys
@winston smith: President Trump has no problem with people entering USA in the proper legal manner and applying for a Visa.
@Steve Austin: is that why his travel bans have been so successful, bit like his businesses. Can you give me a Hell ya
@winston smith: I’ll take “what are feet for for 400 please”
@Steve Austin: is that why he signed an executive order preventing people who went through the proper channels from entering the US?
@Steve Austin: but people have a problem entering trumps America that’s why tourism is down bigly
I remember that Nat Geo Documentary about the cats and dogs that found their way home?
Homeward Bound I believe it was called.
@Brian Guilfoyle: he whisked it. simple.
There’s a voice that keeps on calling me……
@MARK O ‘LEARY:… until tomorrow I’ll just keep moving on
I hope she kept a catalogue of her travels..there is a film in it somewhere.
Cats, like all wool-bearing animals, instinctively travel North, where it’s warmer, and they won’t be so stuffy.
@Harry the Cat: I heard cats originate from a much warmer and dryer climate. North African/ Middle East type climate. They hate the cold and they hate water and the wet. They don’t have a woolly coat just a thin fur. They also get very confused when they see snow, some are scared, some go chasing after falling snow flakes. They’re not at home in the snow at all.
@Jack Bowden: ever heard of the snow leopard or the Siberian tiger?
@Harry the Cat: Canada is a lot colder than California. You got that in reverse mate.
@Robert Cullen: yeah I’m talking about the domesticated short hair cat.
@Harry the Cat: How is it warmer in the north you plum
@Shane, Harry lives in South Africa.
Well that’s about the same amount of time you’d spend waiting to see a gyno in Cork..and whole story about a cat but nothing about the mismanaged services maternity services in Cork.
Nothing about managers and consultants only working Monday to Friday ( because we all know, babies born over the weekend are a nuisance), nothing about their enormous salaries for this 9-5 job? nothing about overworked nurses trying to deal with the huge amount of babies to be born. Nope. Nothing.
@jenni: what the actual f?
@Damocles: Think it’s called reality on this small benighted island…..
@Kerry Blake: it’s a puff piece about a cat. Times and places.
That’s all well and good Jenni but it doesn’t explain how the cat got to Canada.
Ryan Air of course!
I’d hazard a guess she walked or possibly jumped into the back of a pick up truck for warmth
‘Adobted’ by another family that moved to Canada?
Somebody knows.
Ryan Air?
Probably walked
Cats are like that?
have your say