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Vicky Phelan Sam Boal

Vicky Phelan backs Lorraine Walsh's decision to quit CervicalCheck committee

“I share Lorraine’s concerns about the RCOG review process,” Phelan said.

VICKY PHELAN HAS said Lorraine Walsh has her “full support” after she stepped down as a patient representative from the steering committee set up to oversee changes in CervicalCheck.

Walsh, who has cervical cancer, announced her resignation from the committee on Tuesday after a review by the London-based Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) of tests carried out by the screening programme was published. It found that there were missed opportunities to prevent or diagnose cancer earlier in the cases of 159 women.

Posting to her Twitter account, Phelan, a cervical cancer patient advocate who has terminal cancer, said: “I share Lorraine’s concerns about the RCOG review process. I would like to state for the record that I do not have confidence in the RCOG review process.

“It is notable that the focus by the government was on RCOG’s endorsement of the screening programme rather than on the impact of the findings for those women and families, which was actually the purpose of the review.”

Speaking on RTÉ’s Prime Time on Tuesday, Walsh revealed that two of the three cases dealt with by RCOG in which mislabelling occurred involved her slides and those of Phelan.

“Lorraine was first told that her slides could not be traced, she was then given a set of results even though her slides supposedly didn’t exist and 24 hours later was presented with a new report with entirely different result,” Phelan tweeted.

“On further investigation, she found that labelling had been removed from both her slides and mine and our slides were subsequently mislabelled. These events do not instill confidence in the RCOG process.”

Speaking about her resignation, Walsh said “revelations” in recent months “forced me to examine my own conscience”.

“When I got to a stage that I couldn’t sleep at night, I had to resign and I had to leave the CervicalCheck steering committee as the patient representative on it with Stephen Teap,” she said.

Walsh said a few months ago the committee learned that information sent from the RCOG to the HSE was inaccurate.

“Even as late as early October, of 581 reports, half of them had to be returned because the detail within them was inaccurate,” she said.

“I felt that I got to a stage where people weren’t listening to my concerns so I could do no other thing but to resign.”

Walsh said women have been waiting for 18 months for the report, saying: “It’s a long time for women to be sitting at home waiting for answers.”

“So many women’s lives have been robbed, there are so many men out there that their wives are dead, their daughters, their sisters.

“And people like myself, our lives could’ve been so different. It’s so different, when you look at having a cancer diagnosis and then you realise that it could have been avoided, it’s so hard to come to terms with that.”

She said she still has faith in the screening system itself, stating: “There’s a better chance of your cancer being picked up going for your smears so I say to people please keep screening.”

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    Mute KO
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    Apr 29th 2025, 7:26 PM

    Is this a suprise to anyone ?

    171
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    Mute Dogg
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    Apr 29th 2025, 8:08 PM

    The sign of a good government is not what it can do abroad, it’s the conditions of its own people at home that show it can get its own house in order. At the moment there is a lot of discontent among its people. We currently have the two main parties working in unison and the unrest among the people hasn’t been seen since the civil war. MM said he didn’t accept the criticism from the protestors because he feels we are in a better place than ever before and I believe he is in denial with that statement and that’s scary. Tis worrying times for our little country and its great people.

    146
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    Mute jn
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    Apr 29th 2025, 7:39 PM

    end of road is near for ffg the wheels have fallen off every can their kicking down the road at this stage,local Irish are emigrating in droves, as local big town in munster absolutely flooded with non Irish shocked yesterday

    167
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    Mute MN
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    Apr 29th 2025, 7:56 PM

    Not just road units but they’re the ones who rake in the dollars

    95
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    Mute liam hehir
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    Apr 29th 2025, 8:14 PM

    Shame on them.
    Shortages everywhere.
    A first world country with third world services at best.
    They just do not care.
    I love my country its my government I hate.
    Shame on them .

    138
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    Mute Dogg
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    Apr 29th 2025, 8:08 PM

    I’m afraid there’s a new scandal everyday for FFG, they really have taken their eye off the ball and are continuing to focus on matters abroad. Palestine, trying to be the big lad in the EU Commission, the moral super power of the world and us hundreds of Billions in debt.
    They are spending like teenagers that got their first wage packet. As Tommy Tiernan said ‘Money doesn’t suit us’. We are a tiny little island trying to punch way above our weight.

    84
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    Mute Jb Walshe
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    Apr 29th 2025, 8:43 PM

    @Dogg: “they have taken their eye off the ball” you say….when have they ever had their eye on the ball ? Only to line their own pockets !

    75
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    Mute tony mc g
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    Apr 30th 2025, 10:27 AM

    @Dogg: Sinn Fein/provos would sort all this in no time at all.

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    Mute Brian Molloy
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    Apr 29th 2025, 8:33 PM

    Is there anything there clowns in government have done right besides lining their own and their cronies pockets, health,gardai,defence etc ,all understaffed,

    119
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    Mute Daniel Wilson
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    Apr 29th 2025, 10:37 PM

    @Brian Molloy: they built a fairly decent bike shelter recently

    47
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    Mute DeBaldyMullet
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    Apr 29th 2025, 8:17 PM

    Spend some of the ‘kerching’ from those speed vans and pay for more staff.

    59
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    Mute Fred
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    Apr 29th 2025, 9:17 PM

    Drew Harris has been a total disaster by all accounts. Martin, Harris,McEntee etc should be dragged in front of an Oireachtas committee to explain their incompetence.

    90
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    Mute Athena
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    Apr 29th 2025, 7:35 PM

    Can’t ‘civilians’ be trained into certain jobs and procedures like accident investigation???

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    Mute and the hit's just keep coming
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    Apr 29th 2025, 7:56 PM

    @Athena: ite a response unit …. meaning they would have to be a fully qualified Garda first to be able to drive using lights and sirens to a road fatality….. also they need to be a member so they can preserve the chain of evidence and the crash scene in case it turns into a criminal case …..

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    Mute The facts
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    Apr 29th 2025, 8:04 PM

    @and the hit’s just keep coming: they shouldn’t be driving. We have police helicopters that could take them the majority of the way. Expecting one expert to travel to the other end of the country is farcical and typical of us Irish. Our public sector management are an utter farce.

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    Mute PAUL C
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    Apr 30th 2025, 12:07 PM

    @and the hit’s just keep coming: don’t need to be a gard to drive a car with lights and sirens .. fire brigade, ambulance etc . in terms of chain of custody .. I’ll point you to the forensic crime lab in kildare .. not staffed by AGS !! absolutely could be filled by a civilian competition .. in the article it states that the comp was discontinued as standards of those that applied (all garda applicants) were not meant. There is a mathematical aptitude element of the application this is most likely what is being referenced here. note the GRA didn’t say they needed more Gards assigned .. just more forensic investigators ..! MANAGEMENT are also allergic to increasing the amount of these people as because they are not Gards they don’t have the same control over them. MANAGMENT DONT LIKE THAT!

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    Mute Gerry Lynch
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    Apr 29th 2025, 8:18 PM

    and roma knacks roaming the streets to stab people

    42
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    Mute Basildon Joe
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    Apr 29th 2025, 7:52 PM

    Why ain’t arsenal on the fkcimg tv??disgusting and Rte needs investigation

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    Mute Danny O'Mahony
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    Apr 29th 2025, 8:07 PM

    @Basildon Joe: Amazon Prime have the rights. Football has truly sold its soul when they put such a massive game behind a pay wall

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    Mute Basildon Joe
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    Apr 29th 2025, 8:30 PM

    @Danny O’Mahony: I give up Danny they are shitters doing that to the working man

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    Mute Jb Walshe
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    Apr 29th 2025, 8:45 PM

    @Basildon Joe: down with your British garbage,back to Essex for it

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    Mute Kev Kerr
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    Apr 29th 2025, 9:03 PM

    @Basildon Joe: any self-respecting Basildon Joe would have a dodgy box

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    Mute Hunt Ley
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    Apr 30th 2025, 2:07 PM

    Something fundamentally wrong eith jow the public service performs . The leadership of state bodies seem to play musical chairs. One is as incompetent as the other.
    It’s clear there’s a crisis in policing. Harris needs to go, and a tough law and order policy be implemented.

    1
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