Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 18 December 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Independent Expert Panel Review into Cervical Screening: Discussion

Dr. Peter McKenna:

Deputy Durkan referenced the product. I do not think the public did lose confidence in the product. The reason I say that is because more women than ever before came forward for screening last year. If people lose confidence in something like vaccination, they stay away. We experienced the contrary point of view last year.

What instigated this, and what appears in the first line of the Scally report, is the difficulty that we had in communicating to patients the results of what we were doing. We are in a position to reassure Deputy Durkan that we have learned that lesson. We have taken it on board and are working very hard to ensure that that particular element, which started all of this off in the first place, will not happen again.