TD says plan to continue outsourcing cervical screening is insane
“Scally report exposes the privatisation of screening as at the root of the tragedy”
Calls for plan to repatriate the entire service to publicly funded Irish based Labs
TD Brid Smith of People before Profit has said that Minister Harris plans to continue outsourcing the cervical check screening and the proposed new HPV test is “the very definition of insanity, doing the same thing and expecting a different result.” The TD noted that one company that could be vying for the new contract, Medlab ,was proposing to send smears to affiliates in Australia.
The TD claimed the Scally report exposes outsourcing as the root cause of the tragedy that meant over 200 women were given false negatives on the tests.
“It is now clear that US labs had very different standards in testing, not only where they not ISO accredited (Minister Harris as late as May assured me in two Dail replies that they were) but screeners working in the US have very different workloads. In Ireland, a screener would be expected to examiner a slide for a minimum of six minutes per slide , and could work no longer than six hours per day testing. In contrast workers in the US labs have a limit of 100 slides per day. This is a huge difference and I believe is at the heart of the misreading of these women’s tests” said the TD
The TD also noted that the Scally report shows the identity of the labs who misread the women tests is clearly known by the HSE and cervical check. “I and other TDs have asked repeatedly since May for the identity of the Labs to be revealed. If, as I believe the Coombe is not among those Labs at the heart of the scandal, this is a very powerful argument against any future outsourcing of the programme and for investment to begin to build up the public capacity to run the entire programme.”
The TD said she will call on minister Harris to reveal the identity of the Labs in next weeks Dáil debate and to give a commitment to build up the capacity to run the screening in publicly run and funded Irish labs like the Coombe.
“There are serious questions about the competence of this Minister , if as late as May he could assure us that the US Labs were ISO accredited , and as Scally now shows they were not, what faith can women have in any assurance he gives today especially when he is preparing to again tender for contracts to the same US based labs and their affiliates at the heart of the scandal.”
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