Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy must have spoken to a very strong, very brave and very sensible woman who is clearly somewhat forgiving of the mistakes that were made in her case. He is right that at the forefront of our minds at all times must be our concern and regard for the women who have been affected and also the many others who are not affected but who are understandably concerned because of the fact that confidence in our screening programme has been so diminished. The Deputy is correct to say that the week gone by has been dreadful for our health service. We have many problems with our health service that need to be resolved, whether it be people waiting too long to see specialists or to get the treatment they need or whether it be some of the patient safety incidents we have become aware of in recent weeks and those of which we have been aware for a very long time.

We must not forget some wider truths. In no way would I like to diminish or play down the seriousness of any of the issues we have been talking about in recent weeks but we need to recognise that there are also many good things happening in our health service. Life expectancy is improving all the time and people are living longer and healthy lives. This is due, in part, to our health service. When we ask patients what they think of our health service, 85% say they have a good or very good experience of it. We know that cancer survival rates are improving all the time. More people survive cancer than was ever the case previously. We have better outcomes in so many different areas, whether stroke, heart attack or cystic fibrosis. We now have nearly 10,000 doctors working in our health service - more than ever before - 1,000 more nurses and student nurses than we had a year ago and 114 primary care centres open, with another eight to open in the year ahead. This is just to give a small example of the kinds of things happening in our health service every day that are bringing about real improvements for patients and real changes for the better in people's lives. We do a disservice to the hard-working staff in our health service - all 100,000 of them - if we do not recognise the very good work they all do on a day-to-day basis. We also do a disservice to patients when we are not measured in how we speak about the health service. The Deputy has been very measured in the comments he has made to date.

I will pick up on some of the questions the Deputy asked. He asked about the smear test. The smear test is available to any woman who is concerned and would like to have a repeat one. The terms of this have been agreed with both the GPs and the smear takers. A financial agreement on the fee was made last Friday and the Minister for Health informs me that guidance has been issued to GPs as to how to go about the process. Obviously, there will be logistical and cost issues in getting the tests done as soon as possible but we will overcome them, and the agreement is in place with the GPs and smear takers. The clinical review being carried out will give consideration to whether or not a look back would make sense and be appropriate. Obviously, there are pros and cons to that but it is certainly under consideration. When it comes to the helpline, I am informed that 11,000 calls have now been logged and 7,678 women have requested callbacks. All the calls are being answered quite quickly but it does take time to get back to people because generally what is required is a relatively long clinical consultation with a doctor or nurse. Often these callbacks - these conversations - can, for understandable reasons, take 20, 30 or 40 minutes because women have concerns and questions. Those questions need to be answered and time needs to be given to women and to patients for that. So far, 2,686 calls have been returned, but it should be borne in mind that before the call can be returned, a doctor or nurse needs to check records and data quality and needs to assign a call to a health professional. The initial call is answered and, once the information is collated, a longer callback occurs involving a doctor or nurse.

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