How we got here
How we got here
This recommendation was also endorsed by Mr. Justice Meenan in his report on an Alternative System for Dealing with Claims Arising from CervicalCheck and, as a result, it was included in the CervicalCheck Tribunal Act 2019 (the Act).
Chapter 5 of the Act says that the Minister for Health would appoint an independent Facilitator to administer the Restoration of Trust process and that Moderators would be appointed to a panel to chair any meetings. A Facilitator, Monica, and Moderators, Ber, Diane and Noreen, have been appointed and you can read more about them below.
Before implementing what the Act says, the Facilitator engaged with all stakeholders in the process. You can read more about that on our Stakeholder Process page which is linked below.
In section 14 of Dr. Scally’s report on the Scoping Inquiry into the CervicalCheck Screening Programme, he made the following recommendation:
“The Department of Health should consult with interested parties as to how women and families who wish to, can be facilitated in meeting with the clinician who was involved with their care and/or disclosure.”
You can see Dr. Scally’s full report here.
Following this, Mr. Justice Meenan echoed Dr. Scally’s recommendation, in Chapter 12 of his report on an Alternative System for Dealing with Claims Arising from Cervical Check, stating:
“The Scally Report records in detail the distress, upset and anger arising out of nondisclosure, or disclosure in an unacceptable way, of the results of audits with consequent loss of confidence in the medical profession. It may be the case that a number of women and/or their families feel they have to take legal proceedings not for the purpose of compensation but rather on the grounds that legal proceedings are the only way that they can discover exactly what went on in their particular case.
It seems to me that to provide for such persons there ought to be a system, alternative to a legal process, where this can be achieved.”
“The Tribunal could facilitate meetings between women and/or their families and the medical professionals involved. The purpose of these meetings would be to ensure that in each case full and complete information would be given to those involved.”
Mr. Justice Meenan’s report also noted that:
I refer to the Scally Report which states:
“In my progress report, I recommend that there should be a process established enabling structured conversations with every woman effected who wishes to have her experience documented, or with appropriate surviving family members in cases where the patient has died, if they so wish”.
The above recommendations were given effect by Chapter 5 of the CervicalCheck Tribunal Act 2019 which makes provision for Restoration of Trust Meetings, including eligibility.
