There’s no need to panic over cervical screening judgment

The British precedent for the finding in the Ruth Morrissey case has caused no flood of litigation in that jurisdiction

Anxiety among medics in the wake of the Morrissey judgment on cervical screening is to be expected. Hysteria not so much.

In his judgment, Mr Justice Kevin Cross adopted a 20-year-old British decision, Penney and Ors v East Kent Health Authority, which set “absolute confidence” as the standard of care to be applied for reading cervical smear slides.

The terminology is scary enough to send a shiver down any professional’s spine, but the ...