Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy Tóibín for raising this issue and giving me the opportunity on behalf of the Minister to update the House on this very important matter. Patricia Carrick's story is indeed harrowing and I will raise many of the issues involved in it with the Minister.

A cancer diagnosed in the period of time after a negative screening test and before the next screening test is known as an interval cancer, which unfortunately are an inevitable occurrence in population-based screening programmes. Audit of interval cancer is a key quality assurance mechanism in assuring health authorities, patients and the public about the quality of cancer screening services. Audit processes were in place in CervicalCheck since 2010 as part of quality assurance measures. However, these were paused in 2018 following the issues which have been dealt with by the Scally report.

The scoping inquiry into the CervicalCheck screening programme led by Dr. Gabriel Scally made a number of recommendations, including that audit should continue to be an important component of cervical screening as this complies with all good clinical practice and that common, robust and externally validated approaches to the design, conduct, evaluation and oversight of audits should be developed across the screening services.

This recommendation was accepted by the Government, as were all of Dr. Scally's recommendations, and actions to implement these were set out in an implementation plan approved by Government and published on the website of the Department of Health. In line with the Scally recommendations, the HSE chief clinical officer commissioned a review of audit of interval cancer for all three cancer screening programmes, namely, BreastCheck, CervicalCheck and BowelScreen, with the aim of defining future audit processes and reviewing guidance for interval cancers in the national screening service based on international evidence and best practice.

Expert reference groups were set up comprising Irish and international experts and patient representatives and advocates. The expert reference groups' reports set out the future approach to managing reviews of interval cancers in CervicalCheck and our other two cancer screening services, BreastCheck and BowelScreen. The Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, wishes to thank the groups for their work and acknowledges the contributions of the patient advocates and experts, including the Irish Cancer Society, and the doctors at home and abroad who were involved in these important reports.

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Implementation groups for CervicalCheck and other programmes will now be set up and the Minister expects an update on the progress in early 2021. The ongoing participation of patient representatives in the implementation groups will be the key to improving the patient experience, access to patient information and open communication. The CervicalCheck programme will contact any affected patients whose reviews were paused and keep them informed as implementation progresses.

The Minister wants audited cervical screening to recommence as soon as possible but it must be done in the correct and robust way that Dr. Scally recommends. Some work is required to ensure that will happen. The Minister supports the future direction of auditing within the national screening programme as set out in the expert reference group's reports and the Department of Health will work closely with the National Screening Service to ensure this happens in line with best practice and with patients at the centre.

I have two more general messages for the public, the first of which is that I strongly encourage anyone who has recently received an invitation for screening to follow up on it. Second, I remind the public that while screening is an important service to help identify those who may be at risk of certain cancers, anyone with concerns about symptoms they are experiencing should contact their GP.

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