John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Before going onto the IT glitch issue I want to raise, I refer back to this morning and to Dr. Doherty's reply on the question of those who would go for a private test when she said that CervicalCheck would not have that information. I want to make it clear because Claire Healy is watching proceedings here and is extremely upset. She was a public patient who was invited by CervicalCheck to take a test and the only difference was that it could not give her a test in a timely manner and because of her concerns she went and got a private test. That test proved positive for precancerous cells and when she went for a colposcopy she was told they could not test her because it was a private test. Those are the facts of the matter. I understand the system is under pressure but let us be honest about it - the system was under pressure because of free out-of-cycle repeat smear tests that were offered by the Minister in the middle of this crisis, which put the whole system under strain. It was a poorly thought out strategy. For anybody who is caught up in the issue and whose case has a negative outcome, the system should be reaching out to those people. That is why my constituent is so upset by all of this. If this case was not highlighted publicly, it would not have been resolved. I want to make it clear that Claire Healy was a public patient who was called in by CervicalCheck. It is not acceptable to say that CervicalCheck would not be aware of the findings because Ms Healy would have made them aware, as would hundreds of other women. I have to highlight that. The system should have reached out to all those women in the circumstances. I do not know if the witnesses want to comment on that or not.