Over 11,000 calls have now been made to the CervicalCheck helpline and it continues to be ‘extremely busy', the HSE has said.

According to the latest report from the HSE serious incident management team, 11,046 calls had been made to the helpline by close of business on Monday evening (May 8). Among these calls, 7,678 call back requests had been made.

The helpline opened on April 28 to answer queries and concerns following the fall out from the Vicky Phelan case.

Ms Phelan (43), a mother of two from Limerick, settled her High Court action against a US laboratory for €2.5 million last month. The settlement was made without an admission of liability.

She underwent a smear test in 2011 and was told that no abnormalities were found. However this was incorrect and by the time she had another smear test in 2014, she had cervical cancer.

In January of this year, she was told her cancer was terminal and was given six to 12 months to live.

A subsequent audit revealed that 209 women diagnosed with cervical cancer should have received earlier intervention than they did. As of May 8, 198 of these women, or their families, had been contacted by the HSE, with meetings ‘either held or arranged to discuss the audit and the response'.

"The HSE is working with the National Cancer Registry of Ireland (NCRI) and the Department of Health to identify any other women who had cervical cancer during this time, who may also have had a CervicalCheck test. Reconciliation of data on relevant cases is currently ongoing between CervicalCheck and the NCRI," the HSE said.

Meanwhile, a UK-based expert is to head up the scoping inquiry into the controversy, the Minister for Health, Simon Harris, has said.

This expert is expected to produce a progress report early next month. Issues to be examined include the non-disclosure of information in clinical audits and Ms Phelan's case.

The CervicalCheck helpline can be contacted at 1800 45 45 55.