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:

I very much welcome the Senator's observations on the staff. There are two important features to retaining staff in colposcopy. They must have the facilities to treat the patients coming to them. They have been under a lot of pressure owing to clinical referrals. One of our objectives is to take the clinical referrals out of the colposcopy clinics in order that they can focus on the patients who are best seen in them.

The Senator mentioned trainees dropping out. This has always been a concern in the specialty of obstetrics and gynaecology. It is not something that is suitable for everybody, for a variety of reasons, but, in fairness, colposcopy is not a reason for trainees not continuing in the specialty. It may be a very cogent reason for those becoming consultants not taking up that particular part of the profession.

The Department has allocated funding to make the conditions for the patients and the staff in the colposcopy units better but it would be remiss of me not to say the biggest difficulty the staff have in the colposcopy units is the fact that they felt they have been pilloried and demonised over the past 18 months. They are very sensitive about the negative information about them in the public domain. When that ceases, it will go a long way towards making recruitment into this area less difficult.