Mr. Tony O'Brien:

As I stated, I will listen to the interview when I have an opportunity to do so. An obstetrician or any treating clinician would be correct to say that had the test that was reported negative been reported positive at the time, there would have been a referral and earlier treatment and the outcome may have been very different. That does not relate to the failure to communicate and does not imply that the outcome would have been different but for that failure. The failure to communicate only arose after the diagnosis of cancer because it was that diagnosis which triggered the review that was subsequently not communicated.

I am advised by treating clinicians that receiving knowledge of a prior false negative after a person has been diagnosed and is in treatment would not change the course of that treatment. However, it is clear that had the screening programme picked up an individual's cancer three years earlier, the programme would have done what it is designed to do and has done in 50,000 other cases and brought the person into a treatment pathway which could have prevented cancer or further consequences from developing. What the obstetrician stated is correct.