Vicky Phelan deserves more than a simple HSE apology

WHILE trying to digest Philip Nolan’s take on the scandalous treatment of Vicky Phelan (Irish Daily Mail, Friday) and perhaps many other women ‘sentenced to death’, I feel there are no words or amount of apologies that can excuse the behaviour of those socalled experts.

Like most other organisations, including the HSE, no-one is ever held accountable. Instead it is always put down to a system failure. This will continue without end until those responsible are brought before the courts.

The silence from Dáil Éireann is deafening. Talk about different laws for different people. One must wonder why there are no proper investigations.

Lastly I would like to express my deepest and heartfelt regards to Mrs Phelan and her family.

If the HSE cannot say sorry to this lady and her family and to others yet to be known, I as a citizen would like to say sorry on behalf the nation.

ALEX O’SHEA, Waterford. ...ROSLYN Dee’s article (Why do victims of medical mistakes have to fight so long to get the truth they deserve?, Mail, Thursday) highlights the ongoing failure of our State agencies to protect the rights of the ordinary citizen.

Worse than that, many of these same agencies seem to be downright hostile to the notion of citizens’ rights.

We have endured a seemingly unending series of shocking and disgraceful failures by groups from banks to medical practitioners to care agencies.

Invariably, ‘lessons are learnt going forward’ and apologies are issued. And then the next scandal emerges.

Nothing will ever change until the culture of secrecy and selfprotection is ended. Our defamation laws also need to be dragged from the medieval world into the 21st century.

Openness and accountability need to become the standard by which all State and private agencies operate. Otherwise calling our country a ‘republic’ is largely a meaningless term.

In my opinion this issue is far more important and relevant to the quality of people’s lives than much of the hot air, trivia and waffle that passes for political debate these days. I would strongly urge all Irish citizens to make this a key issue now, and when the next general election rolls around, as this issue will affect the lives of our children and grandchildren as much as our own. GERRY KELLY, Rathgar, Dublin 6. ...HUNDREDS of women may be ensnared in a living nightmare over smear-test failures. We remember Vicky Phelan, the woman whose mistreatment brought this scandal to light. It took two years for an error first identified by an audit in 2014 to even be reported to Ms Phelan’s physician and a further year to be reported to Ms Phelan.

Even with life and death at stake, process and protocol seems to have taken precedence and the needs of the patient got lost. NOEL HARRINGTON, Kinsale, Co. Cork. ...VICKY Phelan deserves all our sympathy for the shameful manner in which she has been neglected by the HSE and others.

Her success in gaining some element of justice in her challenge against the incompetent/mismanagement of the results of her 2014 cervical smear test is an inspiring testimony of her strength of character. I hope and pray her continued endeavours to improve her prognosis will succeed. MICHEÁL MAC GIOLLA RI, Calry, Co. Sligo.

Snookered

JUST when we felt the weather has to improve any day, we are hit with the ‘world snooker’ on TV. It’s the most boring so-called sport ever. I take solace in not having to pay to not watch it. ROBERT SULLIVAN,

Bantry, Co. Cork.