We want to acknowledge comments made last Friday (23rd September) in a radio interview by the CEO of the HSE Paul Reid where he apologised for recently reported comments about 221+ members by HSE staff which he described as ‘hurtful’ and ‘damaging’.
He also acknowledged that Dr Gabriel Scally had identified “a lot of failures” by the HSE in relation to CervicalCheck for which “women and their families paid the ultimate price in terms of hurt and harm”.
We note Mr Reid’s acknowledgement of the positive role that 221+ has always wished to play in rebuilding public confidence in the screening services and we appreciate the time that he and Dr Colm Henry have taken to address issues of confidence in the HSE’s response to Scally.
We are a group representing women that want to ensure that what happened to them won’t happen to others. The respect and recognition of their experience, such as was shown by Mr Reid last week, is and an essential building block to making that a reality.