Results 4,781-4,800 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Medical Council Specialist Register: Discussion (2 May 2018)

Stephen Donnelly: I am trying to listen to the answer. Perhaps Dr. Breslin could repeat it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Medical Council Specialist Register: Discussion (2 May 2018)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Chair and I apologise to Deputy Durkan for that. I will seek an opportunity to reciprocate his generosity. I have one question for the Medical Council in respect of CervicalCheck and the duty of candour and duty of disclosure. As I said earlier, in the Dáil yesterday, the Taoiseach stated that these "are not optional". He was talking about the duty of a doctor to tell a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Medical Council Specialist Register: Discussion (2 May 2018)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the witnesses and the Chair.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Cervical Screening Programme: Department of Health, HSE, CervicalCheck and the National Cancer Control Programme (2 May 2018)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the witnesses for their time. I want to start with the number of women who are affected. Of the 208 women identified, how many have been told at this stage?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Cervical Screening Programme: Department of Health, HSE, CervicalCheck and the National Cancer Control Programme (2 May 2018)

Stephen Donnelly: Mr. O'Brien has said that we do not know exactly how many people are involved in this new group. To give the public some sense of the scale we are talking about, a back of the envelope calculation would suggest 250 to 300 new cases a year for ten to ten and a half years would represent approximately 3,000 women. Just under 1,500 have already been identified to CervicalCheck. Are we talking...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Cervical Screening Programme: Department of Health, HSE, CervicalCheck and the National Cancer Control Programme (2 May 2018)

Stephen Donnelly: Is this group as a population likely to be different from the 1,400 to 1,500 from CervicalCheck? Is it a randomised group? Should we assume that approximately 200 women from this group may also have an existing diagnosis of cervical cancer but have not been told about a previous error or false negative?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Cervical Screening Programme: Department of Health, HSE, CervicalCheck and the National Cancer Control Programme (2 May 2018)

Stephen Donnelly: Many women in Ireland will be worried until we have answers to these questions. When is the HSE likely to be able to identify exactly how many women in this additional group are in the same situation as the 208 who are being contacted at the moment?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Cervical Screening Programme: Department of Health, HSE, CervicalCheck and the National Cancer Control Programme (2 May 2018)

Stephen Donnelly: The public will want to know when the additional women likely to be affected are likely to be contacted. Are we talking about a matter of days or weeks? Will it take two or three months?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Cervical Screening Programme: Department of Health, HSE, CervicalCheck and the National Cancer Control Programme (2 May 2018)

Stephen Donnelly: If Dr. Henry cannot confirm whether we are talking about a matter of weeks or months, is it the case that it could be a matter of months before these women are informed?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Cervical Screening Programme: Department of Health, HSE, CervicalCheck and the National Cancer Control Programme (2 May 2018)

Stephen Donnelly: Are we talking about a number of weeks?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Cervical Screening Programme: Department of Health, HSE, CervicalCheck and the National Cancer Control Programme (2 May 2018)

Stephen Donnelly: Are we talking about a week or two?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Cervical Screening Programme: Department of Health, HSE, CervicalCheck and the National Cancer Control Programme (2 May 2018)

Stephen Donnelly: Dr. McKenna has provided a useful segue into the next question, which many people have been asking since the Minister made his statement last night. If there are approximately 3,000 women known to have been diagnosed with cervical cancer, why has the national screening service only been engaging in audits on less than 1,500 of those? Why were the other 1,500 not under the remit of CervicalCheck?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Cervical Screening Programme: Department of Health, HSE, CervicalCheck and the National Cancer Control Programme (2 May 2018)

Stephen Donnelly: In light of what has happened over recent days, does Dr. Coffey think, with the benefit of hindsight, it is a major oversight on the part of CervicalCheck not to have proactively engaged with the full population diagnosed?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Cervical Screening Programme: Department of Health, HSE, CervicalCheck and the National Cancer Control Programme (2 May 2018)

Stephen Donnelly: With regard to the helpline, I want to read out a post that went up today on social media, but there are many throughout the country. The writer states that as a young woman she is second guessing the accuracy of her results as, she assumes, are most women at this point. Regarding the HSE number, which is the 1,800 number, she states the line is impossible to get through to and those lucky...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Cervical Screening Programme: Department of Health, HSE, CervicalCheck and the National Cancer Control Programme (2 May 2018)

Stephen Donnelly: Thousands of women throughout Ireland are scared and they cannot get through to anybody. They need to talk to somebody. Dr. Coffey has listed the various steps. The question I am asking is when can women in Ireland expect to pick up the phone, dial that number and talk to someone with whom they can have an initial conversation about the circumstances.,

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Cervical Screening Programme: Department of Health, HSE, CervicalCheck and the National Cancer Control Programme (2 May 2018)

Stephen Donnelly: I am up next, I am willing to swap time with Deputy O'Reilly. If she would like to keep going on this issue I am happy to cede my time and I will go after Deputy O'Reilly.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Cervical Screening Programme: Department of Health, HSE, CervicalCheck and the National Cancer Control Programme (2 May 2018)

Stephen Donnelly: At the heart of this issue is non-disclosure. I have the HSE’s non-disclosure policy document here.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Cervical Screening Programme: Department of Health, HSE, CervicalCheck and the National Cancer Control Programme (2 May 2018)

Stephen Donnelly: I beg Mr. O’Brien's pardon.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Cervical Screening Programme: Department of Health, HSE, CervicalCheck and the National Cancer Control Programme (2 May 2018)

Stephen Donnelly: The open disclosure policy. I thank Mr. O'Brien. I would like to read out what the HSE defines as open disclosure, which is at the heart of all of this.An open, consistent approach to communicating with service users when things go wrong in healthcare. This includes expressing regret for what has happened, keeping the service user informed, providing feedback on investigations and the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Cervical Screening Programme: Department of Health, HSE, CervicalCheck and the National Cancer Control Programme (2 May 2018)

Stephen Donnelly: Okay, perhaps Dr. Henry was trying to answer the question but I did not hear an answer. My question is that Dr. Henry was made aware of a very serious breach of open disclosure, it would appear that when he was made aware, actions were not taken to ensure that the women were informed. Why?