TD says HSE and Harris still not releasing key information on Cervical Check
Survivors’ frustration with HSE and Minister symptom of wider problem says Brid Smith TD
Reacting to comments from Vicki Phelan about the government’s handling of the Cervical Check scandal, People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith has said that questions that she put to the HSE and the Minister remain unanswered despite the availability of the information.
The TD’s questions relate to the numbers of false negative smears form each of the labs concerned.
Despite repeatedly asking the question the TD says that the Minister and the HSE are essentially refusing to release the information on the basis that the answers are too complex for people to understand.
She said: “This is nonsense, we want to know where, for example, did the 221 smears at the centre of this crisis come from; it is a simple question and the answer is known. I have seen documentation where it is clearly stated what labs each slide was tested in. We believe it will show that the root cause of this crisis is the decision to outsource the service to private labs and that a disproportionate number of them come from the contracted US labs.
“I have been asking the question as to which labs did the false negative tests come from ever since this scandal broke. I have asked the former Head of the HSE Tony O’Brien at a sitting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health who said to me on the Dáil record that this information could be provided and would be provided.
“I would like to say well done to Vicki Phelan for raising this again and for calling out the Taoiseach and his spin machine that has been working on overdrive to try and subdue the Cervical Check scandal.
“The women of Ireland want to know from what labs did the false negative tests come from, I have been told that the HSE and the Department of Health have this information. I am calling on the Minister for Health to release this information now.”
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