Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegation for attending this morning. With regard to dealing with CervicalCheck, I have a number of questions about the clinicians at the front line. My understanding, on which I would like clarification, is that they were not advised of the clinical audit taking place and that they were not involved in it. Second, the first they heard of the clinical audit was when they got notification from CervicalCheck to advise them. I have reliable information informing me that, in one case, the person was advised there were adverse findings in the reviews of the smears of ten of his patients. The information all arrived in to him on the one day and he was asked to inform the patients. I want the delegates to clarify whether the clinicians at the front line in the 15 centres around the country were aware of the clinical audit before it started. Why were they not involved in the process and kept up to date as it developed? According to my information, the first involvement of the clinicians was when they were notified of the results of the clinical audit in respect of their patients.

There is information from February and March of 2016 that went out in June. There was then ongoing communication regarding who should advise the patients. My information is that there was a meeting on 1 September 2017 with the clinicians. There was a quite robust debate about the issue. Therefore, the issue was still not resolved on 1 September 2017 in respect of informing the patients or the backup support being provided to the clinicians. Surely alarm bells should have been rung at that stage indicating that, 12 months later, the process was still ongoing. Could I get some clarification on those questions?