P.A. Duffy & Co Solicitors

⚠️NEW: Women impacted by cervical screening scandal feel 'insulted' as emotional Minister says sorry and public inquiry is RULED OUT 🎤Chief Reporter @jamesgould23 with this report from Oxford Island in Lurgan. ⁉️Ladies with Letters are not ruling out legal action after Health Minister Mike Nesbitt said there will not be an inquiry into failings in Northern Ireland’s cervical screening service. The group represents women and families caught up in the scandal. A review by Professor Sir Frank Atherton looked at smear test services in the Southern Trust between 2008 and 2021. It followed letters being sent to 17,500 women warning that their tests were being reviewed because they may have been read incorrectly. Health Minister Mike Nesbitt has apologised and accepted the finding that a public inquiry is unlikely to add further clarity. He said it would be unforgivable if anything like this happened again. The Minister added: “All recommendations to strengthen accountability and quality assurance arrangements have either already been fully implemented or are in the process of being implemented." Mothers Lynsey Courtney from Portadown and Erin Harbinson from Tandragee both received wrong results and later died from cervical cancer. We hear from Tracey Bell, Leona Patterson, Heather Thompson and Sandra Courtney. Joined by Enda McGarrity from @paduffylaw.