Northern Ireland’s smear test ‘scandal’ – explained

Some women died of cervical cancer in Northern Ireland, while waiting to find out what went wrong with the Southern Trust’s screening programme.17,500 tests had to be rechecked. Women who had been diagnosed and treated for cancer were retraumatised after they were again contacted about abnormalities discovered during an audit of their cases.This process – known as disclosure – was so badly handled that patients complained that they were misled about the gravity of the news they were to receive, with some going without a family member because they thought it was a routine appointment.Others spoke about feeling intimidated in a room full of medical staff, with some women feeling "shocked" , "horrified", and feeling "it was a washing away of the truth".Health Minister Mike Nesbitt has announced an expert review into the reports, however, he stopped short of ordering a statutory public inquiry.In today’s episode of The State of Us – Tara Mills and Declan Harvey take you through exactly what went wrong, and what all of this means going forward.Get in touch: [email protected]