Cervical Screening Scandal: Varadkar And Harris Must Go

national | rights, freedoms and repression | press release

Sunday May 13, 2018 23:08

by pbp - People Before Profit

Internal memos from the HSE tell a shocking story of cover up and wilful endangering of lives.

A memo from March 2016 shows that audits on cervical screening tests began in 2010 but it was only six years later, that the HSE noted that ‘the process is reaching the stage of communicating individual case reports’.

In other words, telling doctors and the women concerned about problems found.

The memo then notes that ‘one of the cytology laboratories has sought legal advice on the right of the programme to communicate audit outcomes’.

In other words, the private companies that were doing the tests wanted to stop women hearing about false screening tests.

As a result of this pressure and out of concern for their own image, the HSE decided to ‘pause all letters and ‘await advice from solicitors’.

They did not care if this delay in communications endangered the health of women.

But the former Health Ministers, who were responsible for the health services, are taking no responsibility for this scandal.

This is outrageous.

It is simply unbelievable that Leo Varadkar and Simon Harris knew nothing about this HSE strategy.

These are two ambitious men who, to put it mildly, have a record of heightened concern about PR. Yet they claim they were not informed about the publicity strategy of the HSE!

It makes no sense. It is time to end the ‘see nothing, hear nothing’ game that the political elite play.

Everyone knows that in an age of supposed transparency, bureaucratic elites know when to commit items to paper and when to ensure reports are only given verbally.

They have developed a practice that when thing go wrong, a sacrificial punch bag is offered to take public criticism while the political masters protected. The punch bag is then looked after with a high pension and a new career in the private sector.

This cynical game must now end.

If Varadkar or Harris knew nothing about these memos, they are naïve, incompetent fools who do not understand how bureaucracies work and had no will to change that culture. For that alone they should resign.

But they were not fools. They are immersed in a culture of PR spinning and must have heard about an oncoming to danger to their positions.

It is time to bring in full political responsibility and then repatriate cervical cancer screening programme to the Irish public health system.

Privatisation must end. So too must the culture of cover up that goes to the top of Irish society.

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Comments (1 of 1)

Tony O'Brien's resigning was just a scam

by ThisIsBullshit

Mon May 14, 2018 22:59

https://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/former-hse-chief-....html

"Outgoing HSE director general Tony O’Brien will have the full terms of his contract honoured, despite leaving his post early.

Mr O’Brien was due to leave at the end of next month, and Government sources have confirmed that Mr O’Brien, who earned €185,000 a year as director general, will not face any financial penalty or sanction.

He announced his departure on Thursday amid a maelstrom of controversy over when he knew of the cervical cancer test scandal.

The HSE and the Department of Health would not reveal the full details of Mr O’Brien’s exiting terms.

But a spokeswoman for the HSE said he would be entitled to a pension in line with public service norms.

Public service pensions begun before 2013 are worth up to one and a half times the person’s final salary by way of a tax-free lump sum plus an annual pension of half of their final salary.

A Department spokeswoman told the Irish Examiner that Mr O’Brien’s full contractual arrangements will apply. "

WE WILL STILL BE PAYING TONY O'BRIEN AN EYE WATERING PENSION
(AND PROBABLY A "GOLDEN PARACHUTE" LUMP SUM PAYMENT TOO!!)
FOR HIS PART IN KILLING THOSE WOMEN THROUGH PRIVATISING THEIR SCANS
AND GETTING THEM DONE ON THE CHEAP THEN NOT TELLING THEM FOR YEARS
THAT THEIR "YELLOW PACK" SCANS WERE WRONG AND THEY ACTUALLY HAD CANCER

THE MEMOS SHOW HE WAS PART OF A COVER UP TO PROTECT THE HSE AND HENCE THE PENSIONS OF HIMSELF AND OTHERS. IT CLEARLY WORKED BECAUSE YOU AND I WILL BE PAYING HIS BIG PENSION

VICKY PHELAN AND OTHERS HAVE NOT GOT JUSTICE HERE.
HIS STEPPING DOWN WAS JUST A SCAM

There is NO accountability in Ireland for these people,
not even if their stupid decisions get innocent women killed.
They still get their pensions paid by the serfs.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/late....html

https://twitter.com/search?q=Tony%20O%27Brien%20pension...=typd

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Cervical Screening Scandal: Varadkar And Harris Must Go

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