Mr. Damien McCallion:

In terms of the European guidelines, while it would have been an input into the previous quality assurance, QA, standards, one of the actions from Dr. Scally's recommendations is to update the QA standards in line with best practice, which would include the European guidelines, and look at those in other jurisdictions as well. That is also being done from two perspectives. The first is the current programme and the second is another process for HPV testing which is now under way and which will require a new QA model.

The standard turnaround for tests before the crisis was 17 days, and covered the period from when the slide went to the laboratory to when results were supplied to the GP or the patient. We are clearly some way from that turnaround level at the moment, and the challenge of addressing it was what we discussed this morning. We need to find more capacity to address the backlog that is in place. In terms of risk mitigation, we have prioritised the colposcopy clinics where there is clearly a need to read those smears much earlier. We are working on solutions which address the point the Deputy made about clinical backgrounds. A woman in a programme could be on a six-month, one-year, three-year or five-year recall, and that, in some way, reflects the risk to the woman. We are looking at whether a technological solution could be developed in this area. It is quite complex. Unfortunately the group for six-month to one-year recalls has a higher risk profile than the normal three to five-year recalls. In addition, we had concerns about one of our laboratories, which had a quantum of the backlog, and so we sanctioned the use of HPV testing as a way of triaging the situation. By running them through HPV screenings ,those smears that were perhaps in a higher risk category were identified and moved to cytology much earlier. Those are the sorts of actions we have taken to try to mitigate the risk, while still trying to find capacity to get us to a stable point.