Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 May 2024
558. Deputy Paul Donnelly asked the Minister for Health his views on the issue that GPs have been refusing to do private cervical smear tests for patients as they have no faith in the labs where the tests are analysed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22401/24]
View answerGPs are private practitioners, most of whom hold a contract(s) with the HSE for the provision of health services such as the GMS contract for the provision of GP services without charge to medical card and GP visit card patients. Services provided by GPs outside of relevant contractual terms are a matter of private contract between the GP and their patients.
The National Screening Service (NSS) has operational responsibility for CervicalCheck, the national cervical screening programme. The programme offers free, regular cervical screening tests to women and people with a cervix between the ages of 25 and 65. The number of years between screening tests changes depending on a person’s age, analysis of the evidence around CervicalCheck screening indicates that at a population level this is the cohort who will benefit the most from screening.
CervicalCheck colposcopy units and contracted laboratories adhere to strict quality assurance standards and guidelines, laboratory partners are fully accredited and monitored. All CervicalCheck samples go to one of two quality-assured lab providers. These are Quest Diagnostics Inc in the US and the National Cervical Screening Laboratory at The Coombe Hospital in Dublin. The quality assurance requirements and standards for cervical screening programme follow international best practice, and are set out in their Quality Assurance Standards. These standards are applicable to activities under the CervicalCheck programme. They are not applicable to private testing, in which CervicalCheck has no role.
