A documentary showing campaigner Vicky Phelan’s fight to expose the truth of the CervicalCheck scandal is set to air in Irish cinemas on October 7.
‘Vicky’ is set to air in cinemas after making its debut at the Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival back in February this year.
In 2018 on the steps of the High Court, Vicky gave a now-infamous address where she exposed one of the worst women’s health scandals in Irish history, the cervical cancer debacle.
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According to film makers, Volta Pictures - formerly Element Distribution – they said: “Vicky is a profound and intimate journey into not only Vicky’s fight to expose the truth of what happened for all women but also her own personal fight to stay alive.”
From director Sasha King (Akron), this powerful documentary was voted Best Irish Documentary by the Dublin Film Critics Circle at this year’s Dublin International Film Festival and was nominated for an Irish Council of Civil Liberties (ICCL) Human Rights Award at the festival.
The release comes after CervicalCheck were accused of “rewriting history” by more than 221 patients affected.
The row relates to a 'Guide to talking about cervical screening' issued by CervicalCheck to the media, broadcasters, commentators and academics.
The 221+ group has taken particular issue with the statement in the guide that "no lives were put at risk by doctors not informing patients of the results of the audit" and that the non-communication of the CervicalCheck audit results "did not impact the treatment or care of the people concerned".
"This guide document sets out the events of that time and since to be that women were either not informed or badly informed about their clinical audit result," 221+ said.
The group said that this was a wholly incomplete and selective description of what happened.
In a statement, the group said that those affected want to move on from the debacle but "find ourselves coming up against a system that refuses to recognise the mistakes it has made".
"It's not possible to trust a system that continues to deny the existence of something that we personally experienced, as it is doing again through this document," the group added.
The organisation said that the guide ignored the key findings of the Scally Review, High Court decisions in the case of women affected and some who have died, as well as Dáil statements of apology by two taoisigh.
The group said that it fully supports the practice of screening and wants women to engage with screening and it wants to play a positive and active role in building public confidence in screening.
In a statement, CervicalCheck said it had issued a media guide as part of its work to increase public understanding of cervical screening.
It said it would never wish to add to the distress or trauma of anyone affected by cervical cancer, especially the people in the 221+ group which it works very well with.
CervicalCheck said it had received the group's correspondence about the media guide and have offered and agreed to meet to listen very carefully to their concerns.
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