Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 July 2019
1227. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Minister for Health further to recent comments he made in Dáil Éireann and at committee hearings, when information previously requested on the CervicalCheck crisis and the false negative slides currently under review, that is, a breakdown of the number of false negative slides per laboratory and the locations of the laboratories, will be made available; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32200/19]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware from previous responses on this issue, the HSE has advised that analysis was required in order to make the requested data available.
The requirement for analysis reflected the complexities involved in this work. For example, some women may have had multiple smears, not necessarily read in the same lab; slides may have changed by one grade or multiple grades, which is a complexity that would not be shown by a simple breakdown across labs; labs dealt with different regional populations; and in the early years of the programme it was dealing with an unscreened population, which is a further complexity.
The HSE has advised that this work is now nearing completion and the HSE is engaging with patient representatives in the finalisation of the report.
