Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 17 May 2018
Public Accounts Committee
Implications of CervicalCheck Revelations (Resumed)
2016 Financial Statements of the State Claims Agency (Resumed)
2016 Financial Statements of the HSE (Resumed)
9:00 am
Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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I appreciate that, but on the general practice, as I watch this whole thing develop, I have to say that we are going further in a direction in which accountability will be lost in clinical decision making and opinion. With no medical training and just applying basic common sense, I would say that someone should not be signing off on my work unless he or she is aware of its quality. It cannot just be assumed that I am great, particularly in a screening programme in which efficacy levels are not 100%. It is a very reasonable question to ask. The recommendation I have given is perfectly logical from a citizen's perspective, if not from an established clinician's perspective. We are sadly beginning to see that at least some are party to a culture of, in the words of Vicky Phelan, cover-up.