Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 18 September 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Update on the CervicalCheck Screening Programme: Discussion

Mr. Damien McCallion:

I need to check the chronology in respect of Sharon's case. I have spoken to her on a number of occasions and I know she spoke to our clinical doctor, who provides support and clinical advice, about a number of aspects of her care. I believe he may have contacted her in the first instance when her results were released. Her results were caught in the overall backlog. The learning from Sharon's case has been taken on board in terms of communication. It is one of the priorities, as Ms Fitzgerald said, around improving communication. I mentioned the multiple channels people can come through in terms of representation, whether that concerns delays or whatever else, and bringing that together in a more harmonised way, not just in terms of the IT systems for tracking, to which Ms Fitzgerald referred, but also in terms of the general communications system.