Campaign group ‘no further forward’

A campaign group have said they feel “no further forward” following a briefing on the Cytology Screening Review at a health committee meeting on Thursday.

Ladies with Letters was set up after a major review of cervical screening was announced in the Southern Health Trust.

In October 2023, BBC News NI revealed about 17,500 women in Northern Ireland are to have their smear tests re-checked as part of a major review of cervical screening dating back to 2008.

The Department of Health (DoH), Public Health Agency (PHA) and Southern and Belfast Health Trusts appeared before Stormont’s health committee.

“No one has taken accountability for the scandal that happened over 13 years and, as a group, we still have many questions that remain unanswered – how did this happen, why did it continue for 13 years and who is going to take responsibility?” the campaign group said.

In December 2024, two reports were published by the Southern Health Trust and PHA following the cervical cytology review.

The health committee heard that an expert opinion of these reports, a peer review report by NHS England and several patient learning reviews are nearly completed.

They will be published “imminently” in August or September.

The Ladies with Letters said in a statement that the delays were “adding to the frustration and disappointment felt by many of the ladies we are in contact with”.

They said they “cannot understand why a statutory public inquiry has not already been initiated” and that the more they heard today, “the more it seems that the whole cervical screening system is in disarray”.

“Our firm view is that in order to learn lessons for the future and to restore public confidence in the Cervical Screening Programme in Northern Ireland, we need to establish the full, unvarnished facts of what has happened.

“This will only happen through a statutory public inquiry which has the power to compel witnesses and evidence from all relevant stakeholders, and more importantly, allow those affected by the scandal to have a voice,” they said.

Enda McGarrity, solicitor for the Ladies with Letters said the failures that have occurred have been on an “unprecedented scale”.

He said the group have engaged with the health minister on these issues for more than a year and they have “waited long enough”.

“Their request is a simple one – the minister should without further delay establish a statutory public inquiry with full powers to compel evidence, witnesses and which places those who have suffered most at the heart of its work,” he said.