Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 10 October 2019
168. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Minister for Health if the result of the review of the slides of 221 women affected by the CervicalCheck issue will change his plans to continue with a policy of contracting out CervicalCheck screening programmes to private companies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41388/19]
View answerThe 221 Patient Group Laboratory Audit Results Profile report provides information as to which laboratories carried out cervical screening tests for the women in the 221 patient group. The HSE has advised that the information in the report represents a very small subset of overall data for CervicalCheck, which has completed in excess of 3 million screening tests since 2008. As such, while this data is accurate as to which laboratories were used for women within the 221 group, I am informed that it would not be statistically sound to use it as a means of assessing the performance of any laboratory. The performance of laboratories used by CervicalCheck has been analysed and compared by Dr Scally, who has provided the necessary assurances in that regard.
Notwithstanding the above, the HSE made a strategic decision in 2018 to develop a national cervical screening laboratory, in conjunction with the Coombe Woman and Infants University Hospital. This included an initial capital allocation of €5 million to progress the development of the laboratory. The HSE has advised that a joint project team and steering group has been put in place to oversee all aspects of this project. The HSE advises that this enhanced facility will take some time to develop but will provide a better balance between public and private provision of laboratory services to the cervical screening programme.
