Science Photo LibraryEight women whose smear tests were misread by screeners went on to develop cancer, a major review into cervical screening at the Southern Health Trust has found.A further 11 women’s slides were found to have pre-cancerous changes in the cells when they were reviewed and had to receive treatment. All these women had either pre-cancerous changes to their cervix or were diagnosed with another significant gynaecological condition when their smears were reviewed.The Southern Health Trust has apologised to all those affected.’An absolute scandal’The review was triggered when the diagnoses of three women were investigated as a Serious Adverse Incident.Two of the women, Lynsey Courtney and Erin Harbinson, have since died.More than 17,000 were approached to have their smear tests rechecked.The examination of cancer screening at the Southern Health Trust over 13 years found that many women were failed after some screeners underperformed and went unchecked by management for years.Stella McLoughlin from the campaign group Ladies with Letters described what had happened as unforgivable and called for a public inquiry.”This has been an absolute scandal from start to finish and was allowed to go on for 10 years,” she added.”Smears being misread, people not being held to account, screeners not being managed properly – all of this is affecting real people.”Cervical screening review The review of cervical screening in the trust looked at two different groups of women.The first looked at the cases of 207 women who had previously been diagnosed with cervical cancer. The eight women who went on to develop cancer had their slides reviewed in this cohort.The review found that if their tests had been read correctly they could have been diagnosed and treated earlier.The second group included 17,425 women who were asked to return to have their smears rechecked.The 11 women who are currently undergoing non-cancerous treatment were part of this group.The trust said it could not be concluded that the eight women had developed cancer because abnormalities on their smear tests were missed.In October 2023, the Southern Trust announced a precautionary review of the cervical screening results of 17,425 women screened between 2008 – 2021.The move was in response to an independent Royal College of Pathologists (RCPATH) report which found “persistent underperformance” in the work of some laboratory screeners.BBC News NI can also reveal that out of the four screeners under review one …
