The parents of a young Portadown woman – and others who died as a result of multiple failings highlighted in the Southern Trust’s cervical screening scandal – will not get the “answers they deserve” until a full and public inquiry is carried out.
That was one opinion offered this week, as it was confirmed that, in the next number of days, ABC Council will convene an urgent sitting of its health working group to meet representatives of the Southern Trust and Public Health Agency, to back the fight for that inquiry and give a voice to those who have been robbed of their own.
Lynsey Courtney died in September 2018 at the age of 30, after a courageous fight against cervical cancer.
Erin Harbinson, from Tandragee, was only 44 when she died in August 2024 after receiving a similar diagnosis, with three smear tests having been misread over the course of a decade.
Lynsey and Erin are two of the lives needlessly lost in a highly publicised and deeply shocking failure of a system set up to safeguard them.
Ladies with Letters became the voice of women living in the Southern Trust area, so named as all received letters in late 2023 informing them their smear tests must be screened again.
In all, 17,500 women were informed that their smear tests may have been read incorrectly over a 13-year period.
Ladies with Letters have been tirelessly searching for answers as to what went wrong and how a lengthy litany of failures was allowed to continue for so shockingly long.
Ulster Unionist Councillor Julie Flaherty raised the matter under ‘any other business’ as the council’s Governance, Resources and Strategy Committee sat last week.
Describing it as an “urgent matter” following the most recent developments in the cervical screening scandal, Councillor Flaherty said: “Members should be aware that the Trust and Public Health Agency have now published their reports into the historical cervical failures covering a period from 2008 to 2021. They make for deeply uncomfortable reading, although a lot of it is not at all new.
“They reveal a series of systemic failings in laboratory quality assurance, staff oversight and governance structures – all that were meant to safeguard women’s health.
“We know that 17,000 women had to have their results reviewed. We know several were directly impacted by diagnostic errors.
“For far too many, it’s not just a story, it’s not just an AOB, it’s not just being raised in councils and in the chamber – and in the Stormont chamber in particular lately – it is a personal ordeal of fear, uncertainty and loss.”
The Ulster Unionist said many councillors had met the women involved and had come to know them well.
“These are our constituents. They’re from Portadown, Armagh, Banbridge and right across our borough,” said Councillor Flaherty. “And they, as all women are, are entitled to expect competency, transparency and safety from their Health Service. Instead they were failed, and they deserve to get full accountability and answers.
“Thus far that is not what we have grown to expect. People who attended for all those years did everything right. Those lives that were lost, those loved ones, those families – they did everything right. They attended their screening and they trusted the system.
“I’ve said it before many times in this chamber: we must have trust in the Trust.
“So while the Trust and PHA have apologised and accepted the recommendations, serious questions remain about oversight, communication and how these failings were allowed to continue unchecked for so long.
“I have always been clear, as have the Ladies with Letters, that a statutory public inquiry is the only way forward. I hope after two years of me raising this in this chamber that my colleagues around me will all agree with that call.”
The Ulster Unionist said they needed to discuss the reports that had been published and “their implications for women, and what urgent steps are being taken to restore public confidence in this screening service”.
She asked for clarification on who would be attending, adding: “I certainly want to be asking the chief executive of the Southern Trust and the chief executive of the PHA that assurances are made for every woman that is being contacted, supported and given information; that the current screening process, particularly those under the new HPV-based system, is subject to oversight – independently strengthened, I would suggest – and that our council is kept fully informed of progress in implementing these recommendations.”
Councillor Flaherty added: “We owe it to these women to keep the pressure on and get some answers for these families. We genuinely owe it to them and owe it to the ladies of the future.”
Head of community planning, policy and research Elaine Gillespie confirmed she had sought representation through the chief executives of both the Southern Health Trust and Public Health Agency to attend the health working group.
Previous meetings, she explained, had included representation from two particular individuals and, while they had written to the chief executives, Ms Gillespie said she would expect it might be the same two who would attend again.
“I will seek a date as quickly as possible,” promised the officer, who said she had been aiming for this week but would confirm.
DUP Councillor Lavelle McIlwrath wholeheartedly backed what had been said.
He stated: “As someone who has worked closely with Sandra and Ronnie Courtney for a long number of years now, who lost their beautiful daughter Lynsey, these are hard and difficult days and hard and difficult reports.
“I think I’m the first councillor in this chamber who called for a statutory public inquiry into what went on and I stand by that. Until that happens I don’t believe the Courtney family will get the answers they deserve.
“I put it on record again tonight and I would urge the Health Minister to have a public statutory inquiry into what happened in the Southern Trust area.”
Sinn Féin Councillor Mary O’Dowd said she would “totally agree” with everything that had been said and asked if the next health working group meeting would be face-to-face or online.
Head of community planning Ms Gillespie confirmed she had asked for a face-to-face meeting but, given that they wanted it to happen “quite quickly”, then it may have to be online to “help accommodate that”.
“I think a face-to-face meeting would be a lot better than sitting on Zoom,” said Councillor O’Dowd.
“Under the seriousness of this, it would be very disappointing if they didn’t make themselves available to come in and speak to everyone face-to-face.”
Alliance Councillor Peter Lavery described the cervical screening debacle as a “completely cross-party issue”.
“A face-to-face meeting would be better given the seriousness of the issues involved,” he added. “I think we will all repeat that there needs to be a statutory public inquiry in order to answer a lot of the questions that the women have which still remain unanswered. I think there’s complete support across the chamber here tonight for those calls.”
The head of community planning confirmed: “I am working with both agencies to see how quickly we can secure a date.”
And Councillor Kate Evans – who said she had met the Ladies with Letters on a number of occasions – said she would make sure she was available to chair that meeting.
“They have done us all proud in fighting for what they deserve and it’s only fair that we back them up by trying to get these groups together as best we can,” she added.
