Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I understand everything that was said. I have also been speaking to some of the ladies directly involved. For public information, I want to touch on a few points in the letter. It is an extensive letter with very detailed information. We welcome the information provided. It is the first time anybody will have seen this level of information on this matter. I do want to make some points for people watching. The letter states that in respect of the cytology slides it is a condition of the laboratory that it holds the document for up to ten years once testing has been completed.

The letter from the HSE continues on page 2 with the kernel of the issue Deputy Catherine Murphy mentioned. The HSE has put what it calls a protocol in place because it states that these slides are a critical piece of primary physical evidence that will be relied on by patients to advance their claims and by the laboratories and the HSE in defending any such claims. An exact protocol was put in place by the HSE as to how the slides are to be released. I will come back to that because it is relevant. The HSE states that it wants to maintain the chain of custody and to ensure that the slides are issued through laboratory to laboratory transfers. Even though the HSE, and the national screening service, is the legal custodian of these slides, they are normally held in laboratories.

It goes on to state that a digital image is taken to record the condition of the slide prior to its dispatch so as to ensure that if a slide is lost or damaged in transit, a secondary record of the contents of that slide will be available. Typically, the taking of such images requires the input of a specialist cytologist or screener. That is some of the reason for the delay. I am just putting that on the record. I am not agreeing or disagreeing. It is being stated by the HSE that some of the issues patients have might result from a single patient slide being in one or two, or more, laboratories and more than one laboratory, therefore, might have to be contacted for some individual patients.

The letter goes on to state that early on, before the HSE established its protocol, some people, because it is their medical information, were contacting the laboratories directly. The HSE was losing a chain of custody, as it calls it, of evidence that might be very relevant. It put this protocol in place and that has ensured that the HSE now has a centralised approach. I ask the Deputies to pick up on what I am saying when I am finished. The HSE has stated that the updated position, as of Friday, 28 November, was that slides have been released under the protocol to 30 patients represented by 16 different firms of solicitors. The number of patients who received slides following direct contact with the laboratories, before the protocol was put in place, was 18.

On the next page, the HSE gives the release time for 49 slides. That is not 49 people because some people might have slides in more than one laboratory. It is clear that 25% of them were well over the eight week period. I cannot find this in the letter but the HSE has stated that, in its protocol, when arrangements are being put in place to meet a request for slides to be transferred from laboratory to laboratory, it must also be to an identified person with relevant experience taking overall responsibility for maintaining the physical environment in which the slides are stored and examined. I think we have to agree with that.