24 Cork women were failed by smear tests

Chief operations officer at South/South West Hospital Group, Gerard O’Callaghan, revealed the figures for the ‘false negative’ smears at a Regional Health Forum in County Hall.
“Nationally, the amount of women affected is 209 and we have two cancer centres here in the south: Cork University Hospital (CUH) and University Hospital Waterford (UHW),” he said.
“Sixteen women from UHW were affected, and 24 from CUH,” he added.
Eighteen women have died in relation to the CervicalCheck controversy, the HSE revealed earlier this week, with efforts still ongoing to contact all 209 women or their next of kin.
Chief officer for Cork and Kerry Community Healthcare Organisation, Ger Reaney, confirmed that the person in charge of liaising with the women in the Cork region, Kerry-based public health nurse, Helen Sweeney, only began her work yesterday.
He added that she hopes to have made contact with all of the people affected by this evening.