Dr. Peter McKenna:

The HSE has taken the disclosure of the RCOG audit as a matter of the utmost importance. There were many unknowns involved. We did not know when the reports were going to come through and we did not know the discordant rate. Consequently, our plans were based around a discordance rate of 40%. We had to plan for something and so we picked something at the upper end of the likely range. Other audits like this would have shown a discordance rate of 25% to 35%, so we decided that we would plan for the worst case, which would be 40%.

We have not got all of the reports back yet, but the evidence we have suggests that the discordance rate is going to be substantially lower. The total number in the priority group, consisting of all of the discordant smears, the 221 patients who were a part of the RCOG review, patients who have died, patients who had an interface with colposcopy and patients whose slides have been either lost or broken, comes to approximately 400. Based on that fact, it is reasonable to state that the discordant rate is likely to be substantially less than the 40% for which we were planning. That is how we arrived at that figure and we did that so that we could get our plans in motion. I am not in a position to give the Deputy the absolute discordant rate yet, but the hope and the expectation is that the planned percentage was on the high side.