Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 8 November 2018

Public Accounts Committee

Matters related to Medical Negligence, Open Disclosure, Cervical Cancer and Thalidomide Litigation

9:00 am

Mr. Damien McCallion:

It is important to set the context. There are three laboratories providing services - a public laboratory at the Coombe and two others. The laboratory at the Coombe provides around 10%, while the figures for the others can vary year on year. However, they can provide approximately 45% each of total capacity. One of the challenges is that as a profession or service cytology is starting to cease as HPV testing is introduced. In simple terms, in the current model, everyone a receives cytology service. Only 10% receive a HPV testing service. In the future 100% will receive a HPV testing service, while only 20% will receive a cytology service. We are trying to source capacity in many countries and everyone is struggling to find a cytology service. It is a global challenge; it does not matter to which company one talks or where one goes.

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