Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 23 May 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Cancer Screening Programmes: Discussion

9:00 am

Professor Ann O'Doherty:

I do not know who will provide the service so something needs to be done in terms of clinicians who make an error.

In terms of the word "negligence", I make errors on a daily basis and I report thousands of them. I am not negligent because I make errors. Even the term "medical negligence" upsets me because it is extremely upsetting when one misses a cancer.

I am not a solicitor so I do not know how we could provide mediation. We need to find some method of compensating women in a way that reflects what has happened to them. As I indicated, many cancers do not progress and a cancer that was not picked up the first time may not have progressed when it is diagnosed. However, some cancers will kill within a year. Cancers vary greatly. We need a great deal of advice from the State Claims Agency and solicitors on a mediation service.

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