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LAST UPDATE | 3 Apr 2019
THE FORMER CLINICAL Director of CervicalCheck, Grainne Flannelly, is to tell the Oireachtas Health committee that she had warned Health Minister Simon Harris about the challenges in offering additional smear tests to women.
Among the advice Flannelly offered was that additional (or out-of-cycle smear tests) would be “difficult to plan for and difficult to deliver sufficient capacity to avoid longer waiting times for results”.
On 28 April, Harris offered women who had availed of the national screening programme an additional free smear test to ease their concerns in the wake of the CervicalCheck controversy.
Harris has been criticised for making this offer without allocating additional resources to healthcare services. The backlog, which reached a peak of 83,000 in January, has led to 1,000 women needing repeat smear tests due to their sample expiring.
Representatives of the HSE and CervicalCheck are due before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health from 9am today to give an update on the latest figures on the CervicalCheck programme and the implementation of the Scally report.
Flannelly is to tell the committee that at the end of April 2018, the head of screening at the National Screening Service Charles O’Hanlon informed Flannelly that the Department of Health had asked for their thoughts on offering out-of-cycle smears.
Flannelly said that she and O’Hanlon offered the following advice:
1. General Practitioners would not be able to be paid for this service as there was no mechanism for payment of out of programme tests
2. Laboratories would not have sufficient capacity – already laboratories had issues with recruitment and retention of cytologists
3. Colposcopy services will not have sufficient capacity, as capacity for new colposcopy was based on the number of women screened.
4. Most importantly, it would fundamentally undermine the screening programme.
In response to a parliamentary question from Fianna Fáil’s health spokesperson Stephen Donnelly, Harris said that he had not received advice prior to announcing the free smear tests:
Neither I nor my officials received advice that recommended against these tests in advance of the decision. Subsequent to the decision, on foot of telephone contact by the Department, the National Screening Service raised a number of concerns verbally.
“Following the announcement, the Screening Service set out concerns in an email to my Department, which related to uncertainty about costs, volume, impact on turnaround times, impact on perceptions of the programme’s accuracy, challenges with processing GP payments, and the potential difficulty in ceasing the arrangements in due course.”
Harris made the announcement on 28 April; Flannelly said the National Screening Service were first contacted on 28 April, and they responded on 29 April.
‘Save your own skin’
The issue was raised during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil this afternoon. Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said the government’s decision to offer repeat smear tests was wrong and done to “save their own skin and cover their own tracks”.
Martin said the decision “reeked of panic”, adding that the response of Harris and Leo Varadkar to the situation “lacks character”.
He told the Taoiseach the decision was made “to save your own skin because you panicked”.
Varadkar defended the move, saying the government was reacting to women’s genuine concerns and that a number of doctors, and members of the opposition, had called for repeat smear tests to be offered.
“The reality at the time was that there were a lot of women who were really concerned about the accuracy of smears,” he said, adding that Harris has already addressed the issue in the Dáil.
He said he expects the CervicalCheck backlog to improve in the coming weeks and months.
HSE apology and 33-week wait
The HSE is set to apologise for the “regrettable and unacceptable delays” women have been facing in receiving their smear test results, which have been partly caused by offering these extra smear tests, at the committee hearing today.
The HSE is to tell the committee that the maximum waiting time women now face before getting their smear test results is 33 weeks; that’s up from 2-4 weeks before May 2018. The average wait time is 15 weeks.
The HSE has said that while the delay is “undesirable”, that it poses a very low risk to women, as cervical cancer usually develops over a period of 10 to 15 years.
It did, however, add: “The HSE remains extremely conscious of women’s concerns regarding cervical screening over the past year and in particular women’s anxiety due to the delays in reporting on smear test results.
We are very sorry for these regrettable and unacceptable delays and remain committed to seeking solutions which will reduce women’s waiting times.
On the 28 March, there were around 79,500 tests waiting to be processed; that figure hasn’t changed much since January when there were 82,000 smear tests. Before the CervicalCheck controversy, the HSE says there was around 23,000 smear samples “in progress at any one time”.
Tackling the delay
The HSE has taken a number of measures to attempt to decrease the backlog: this includes prioritising certain samples, which includes smear tests from “high risk groups such as colposcopy”, and smears approaching the six-month storage limit, which are then tested for HPV before expiration for those tests.
The HSE has also made extensive efforts to source additional laboratory capacity, including in other countries.
Damien McCallion, the National Director of Screening Services at the HSE told the Committee today that of the number of women who availed of smear tests between May and December, a third are women who had not availed of the service and two thirds were women who had availed of the programme before.
Repeat smears
In an attempt to strengthen trust in the CervicalCheck programme, available for free to women aged from 25-60, Health Minister Simon Harris announced last year that women who had received a smear test could get a repeat done for free.
This offer was available between May and December last year; it has cost €9.6 million and today it was announced that the number of “early” smear tests was 57,810.
Concerns about the programme had been raised after 221 women who had been diagnosed with cervical cancer in the past 10 years were not told that their past smear tests had been audited, and was found later to have been interpreted incorrectly.
Since then, campaigners such as Vicky Phelan, Emma Mhic Mhathúna, Orla Church, and Stephen Teap, whose wife Irene died of cervical cancer, have all been fighting for improvement of the CervicalCheck programme, while also highlighting its importance in identifying abnormalities and its role in saving women’s lives.
Since then, changes have been made to the programme – in his February report, expert Dr Gabriel Scally said that he was “very encouraged by progress to date” in implementing the recommendations from his September report.
With reporting by Órla Ryan
Urgent EU intervention to the HSE… There are more than enough examples of how that rotten organisation is violating human rights over and over again…
@Patitas: it’s ok, harris said yesterday that it’s an exciting time for the hse.
That’s all you need to know, it’s all good
@Bill Clay: Harris needs to go
@Skybloo:
He should never have been appointed to cabinet in the first place.
@Bill Clay: Oh so exciting, lashing of ginger beer, tally ho. Enid Blyton has been reborn .
@Skybloo: Harris won’t go, he’s doing his master’s bidding, destroying the public health system to replace it with a pay or you die system.
@Skybloo: he’s not the only one – the entire board of the hse need to go too -scrap the bloody thing and start over again with people who know how to run a health service -not farmers ,teachers and former politicians !
And meanwhile the Quinn family case cost the tax payer 170 million in legal fees etc etc
Chatting with a polish work colleague yesterday about this and he said 2 days in Poland for smear test results..this country is spiraling out of control long enough..absolutely no need for the circus that’s going on here!!!
@Craig Clancy: they loose precious time
It is a disgrace
@Craig Clancy: they loose precious time
It is a disgrace.
Harris must of been some man to make a few cups of tea for the lads when climbing the political party ladder. No qualifications nor experience and now heading up an actual life and death related multi billion euro budget/department- typical Ireland.
Ah sure what harm , give the lad another few goes at guessing his way around.
.
Cant wait for the absolutely made up, RTE driven Claire Byrne live poll to say 58 per cent of normal folk think hes sound or something to that effect
@baw baw: and show screenshots from the Equality vote with the poster “I fancy Simon Harris”.
Wonder does that woman holding the poster still feel the same?
same labs do private smears in 2 weeks
@ed w: I couldn’t risk waiting so went private. It cost around 200 and got the result within 2 weeks. Didn’t really have the cash to spend but couldn’t put a price on the peace of mind.
@Ali murray: me too !
@ed w: just heard on the News, Medlabs (Private) in Dublin are taking 33 weeks! Crazy! This never happened when our own Public Hospitals used to do them!
I get the impression (from the past and present hse workers) that harris is like an immature teenager in that job. Then the situation is compounded by an image obsessed party putting politics before lives, afraid to replace him because it might show them as being politically weak against the opposition.
There’s no accountability in Irish politics so he will plough on
Obviously it would cause delays. If a woman has symptoms or other issues surely should be a way of rushing this test. The anxiety of waiting is unbearable also how accurate are these results now as if over 6 months surely a new test needs to be performed
The reason there is no accountability in government is because there are two parties sharing two seats since our government began.
Everyone who keeps voting for FFG, regardless of how they feel about the alternatives, is directly responsible for that lack of accountability.
Put a 3rd party in there just once and things will change.
But you won’t do that because Stockholm syndrome is so deeply ingrained
He seems to be more interested in taking cheap shots at Sinn Fein blaming their ‘absence’ from the UK parliment is causing the lack of a Brexit deal. The C U Next Tuesday really doesnt care!
@Doubtchya Boy!: The joys of having a spineless opposition. He can do whatever he likes and FF still won’t pull the plug.
@Ed: That Chambers guy from FF was on something the other day, crying that they couldn’t possibly have an election when Brexit was ongoing ,what will be the next excuse, can’t have an election until Ireland win the World cup?
Harris misleads the dail is becoming a rather common ACCURANCE. First the Hospital now smear check ……
Simon have you not learned it’s better 2 be honest dont worry though mate you’ll still keep your job cause the country needs to be mature at a stage where Brexit could end all Irish civilisation if we dont have a government full of con men being support by another party of con men .
@Ian O’Rourke: I just put ACCURANCE in Goggle and the Internet crashed
@Ian O’Rourke: you are aware that Dr Flannelly was the one who swept the whole cervical check scandal under the carpet knew false negatives were given to women so she’s a cheek making any comments on this. If retesting wasn’t offered there would have been up roar it was well know there would be delays due to capacity in system. We don’t have capacity to do our own smear tests here so they have to go abroad. These issues go back to Mary Harney who outsourced the contract.
So the HSE say not to worry cause it takes 10-15 yrs for Cervical Cancer to develop , what about the first timers who only had a smear in the time frame these muppets €ucked up ? Or some first timers who are only Eligible now for Smear test due to their age ? So there’s potentially even more women out there with a death sentence that could be prevented but the money is wasted on Govt officals and their squandering of millions ( new children’s Hospital) Shocking
Harris has to resign
Ffs people…… time to wake up! This incompetent idiot needs to go! This government are playing and gambling with people’s lives and we still have people voting them in time after time! Shame on those that continue to vote them in, this despite their continual bad governance and shame on this government!
@Niall Binéad: who do you think should be there. I’ve not seen a coherent plan from anyone on health.
@ed w: what’s the worst that can happen if SF were to get in? Can’t make it any worse really..
@Craig Clancy: Sinn Fein getting in is the worst that can happen, thankfully it will never happen.
@Lancer: Wake up will you they can’t be as bad as the shower who have been running the country for the last one hundred years
@Lancer: because of people like you, SF will get every single vote of mine, regardless of candidate, from now on. Your kind has to be offset.
@Lancer: do explain? How could it possibly be worse? Suppose the shower that are in now are playing a blinder are they? Cop on will ya..
@ed w: Someone who doesn’t get found out to be lying regularly would be a great start…
@Joe Phillips: Same here…
@Lancer: I believe you will be eating your words, a certain FGer is close to the end and if only a fraction of the rumours are true FG will be toxic to all.
@Lancer: How? Please explain how it could get worse.
I’ve said it before, any criticism of the government from FF is utterly meaningless as long as they’re keeping FG in power!
@Keith O’Reilly: They think voters are too dumb to notice that, mind, when next GE comes around they might be proved right…
A journalist who dons a stethoscope and magically becomes a health minister, cervical smere is a total mess. Children with interrupted dental procedures, oh dear.
@Deirdrejosephine Mcgovern: FAILED JOURNALIST ! he left before passing any exams !
Harris is college drop out without any experience of a real job be a Health Minister. Should have been sacked for the hospital fiasco and now shows his failure to listen to advice from people who understood the situation far better than he did. . When will FG realise what a liability this individual is to their chances at the next election ?
I wonder does anyone who voted for Harris feel any shame.. They should…
@MickN: We probably need international observers for the next election. I question how any rational person would vote for Harris.
Out out out
Thought id never do this. But, the problem probably isnt Harris at all. Its who ever is in the HSE advising him and telling him what to do and say. You’ve the likes of Coveney, Harris etc who all never finished College. Never had a real job. Went straight into politics, thus never really lived in the real world or had to think for themselves? Poor creaters..
So nobody told the boy Harris,
that offering extra smear tests could cause delays !
Can he not read the daily papers or even watch tv.
Maybe the boy Harris needed a sound bite to deflect
from his lack of experience in the job depending on
others to hold his hand.( ie nobody told me )
Maybe he should go back to college.I have read that he studied French and Journalism at DIT, but has no formal qualifications to show for it.
Simon Harris is clearly out of his depth as our Health Minister
being able to talk fast is not a asset for a health Minister.
This is another mark against Harris by this woman. One of these revelations will bring him down, and the sooner the better.
It’s all about spin
Let’s wait for the spin at newstime.
One patient waiting for smear test results is one too many
“Wreaked” of panic? “Reeked” of panic.! Come on journal!!
How many more scandals have to happen under Harris before he is sacked? How many more people have to die due to his incompetence?
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