Dr. Lorraine Doherty:

Let me be clear; I do not think a decision was ever taken to exclude women who had private smears from the colposcopy service. A decision was made by CervicalCheck when a large volume of women were waiting for results and women were being referred for a colposcopy. We have a memorandum of understanding with each colposcopy unit. We wrote to them reminding them to prioritise these women in fulfilling their obligation to the screening programme. We did not at any stage instruct them not to take private referrals or referrals from women who had private smears who were referred for a colposcopy.

As my colleague, Dr. McKenna, highlighted, because of the configuration for the delivery of services, when women go to their GP for a private smear and to have an investigation there is nowhere for them to be referred other than a private or public colposcopy clinic. The confusion arose because people felt that as we had asked clinics to prioritise the public patients from the screening programme to fulfil the contracts, that in some way women who had private smears were to be excluded. The exclusion came from the workload associated with the clinics when they were trying to keep up with the sheer volume of activity. A decision was never taken by CervicalCheck or the HSE to exclude women with private smears from the colposcopy clinics.