Mr. Patrick Lynch:

Someone was instructed to check with each of the hospitals, and as of just prior to this meeting we know that 172 women have now been contacted. In some cases - and I do not have the exact number - the woman has died, but their next of kin has been contacted. All of them have been offered an appointment this week. Some of the women have chosen not to take appointments this week because they have scheduled appointments and do not want to come in for a second time. The objective was that all of those women would be contacted and offered an appointment this week. Of the 36 who remain, at our press conference on Monday we were aware of 14 who were outside of the public hospital system. There has been difficulty in determining where they are and how contact can be made with them.

Attempts have been made to try to contact everybody, but there have been some difficulties in reaching people. Some people are out of the country and some have just been difficult to contact. We have moved from a situation at the beginning of the week where only 46 women were contacted to the current position, with 172 women contacted.