Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this very important matter. A serious problem has arisen in my constituency regarding cervical smear cytology. Cervical smear tests are recommended for all women aged between 20 and 65. As the national smear testing programme has not yet been rolled out to counties such as Kerry, many GPs do their own screening on a voluntary basis. The majority of GPs have been sending smears to the laboratory at the Royal College of Surgeons unit in Beaumont Hospital for the past nine years or so, where they get a very professional service, with results returned after a waiting time of six to eight weeks.

On Wednesday last, GPs received correspondence from the RCSI lab, advising that it could no longer accept smears, with immediate effect. No explanation was given, I understand. Apparently, the only alternative is to send the smears to Cork University Hospital. However, the staff in CUH are under considerable pressure and are just about coping with their current workload. They are still opening smears they received last April. Besides that, they do not accept liquid-based smears from GPs, a method used by most GPs and predominantly across Europe.

Cork University Hospital only accepts smears taken using wooden spatulas, with the sample being placed on a slide manually by the GP. As a result of the backlog of work in CUH, the staff are under so much pressure that they have not yet adopted technology to analyse liquid-based smears.

Cervical cytology is a labour-intensive job. It involves highly-trained cytologists analysing a smear through a microscope for a considerable length of time. Even if the CUH lab was equipped to do liquid smear tests, it just could not double its output overnight if all the GPs now using the RCSI had to be accommodated.

The GPs must send their patients' smears to an accredited lab which can process liquid-based smears and report on them within three months at most. They are reluctant to return to the old method of taking smears using wooden spatulas as the liquid-based method is accepted as being superior. Besides that, they are not prepared to wait seven months for the result of a smear test as this could be fatal for the patient.

The vast majority of GP smears are carried out on GMS patients. The GPs do not get paid for this work, not even for the special delivery postage. The concern of the GPs is not driven by money, but it is rather a genuine concern for the patients' health. Early diagnosis and medical intervention in many cases is the difference between the life and death of a woman with cervical cancer. Deaths are preventable and it would be a tragedy if GPs had to stop doing smear tests because they had no place to send them for analysis.

I call on the Minister, through the Minister of State, to make direct contact with Professor Brendan Drumm of the Health Service Executive to request him to make immediate provision so that Kerry GPs can have access to a modern accredited lab which can accept liquid-based smears. I am sure the Minister of State will accept that the women of Kerry, and those living in other parts of the country who depend on the RCSI unit at Beaumont Hospital, deserve this service at least.

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