Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 June 2010
193 Deputy Deirdre Clune asked the Minister for Health and Children the steps she will take to address the problem of letters advising women of their free cervical check being sent to the wrong address and returned unopened; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27757/10]
Amharc ar fhreagraWhen this issue came to the attention of the National Cancer Screening Service last month it investigated the matter and has now provided a full statement on its website at www.cancerscreening.ie about the difficulties in accessing a target population for which a database has to be developed from a number of different sources.
The NCSS has assured me that the return of these unopened letters has had no adverse overall impact on uptake levels for the CervicalCheck Programme. During 2009 CervicalCheck aimed to screen 240,000 women, but in fact approximately 280,000 women were screened. Uptake levels in 2010 continue to reach projected monthly targets.
The reason for letters not reaching the intended person relates mainly to population mobility. There are over 1.2 million women aged 25 to 60 eligible for a free smear test as part of the CervicalCheck programme. As there is no central population database in Ireland, CervicalCheck has assembled a register from information supplied by the Department of Social Protection and self registration of women. The database used by CervicalCheck is known as the Cervical Screening Register (CSR). The CSR is a confidential, secure electronic database containing demographic details and screening history details of women in the eligible population. The Health (Provision of Information) Act 1997 provides the legislative framework for the compilation of the CSR.
CervicalCheck communicates with every woman whose details are provided and relies upon the accuracy of such information. If communications are not responded to, the NCSS sends a number of subsequent reminder letters to ensure that every effort is made to contact eligible women. CervicalCheck encourages any woman who changes her address to notify the programme of the change in her details.
I understand that the information held on the CSR is used only by CervicalCheck and is not shared with any other agency.
