Results 1-20 of 41 for cervical speaker:Kate O'Connell

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Independent Expert Panel Review into Cervical Screening: Discussion (18 Dec 2019)

Kate O'Connell: ...wish to follow on from Senator Burke's comments about the impact of screening on the population's health. Perhaps it is not Dr. Doherty's area, but my understanding is that before the start of the cervical screening programme ten years ago we had the highest rate of cervical cancer in Europe, and we had done nothing to try to impact on that. I think Dr. Walker said at the private...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Independent Expert Panel Review into Cervical Screening: Discussion (18 Dec 2019)

Kate O'Connell: It is important that that message is gotten out there in terms of how aggressive cervical cancer is, the population it affects, that it has life-changing impacts and that despite the best efforts, somehow we still have a system that is fit for purpose.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Engagement with Patient Representatives on CervicalCheck and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Review Process (17 Dec 2019)

Kate O'Connell: ...to improve people's lives and improve survival rates. I would like to examine some of the witnesses' proposals. Before the regime started, we had the highest rate in Europe of people dying of cervical cancer. I take it from what the witnesses have said that one of the negative aspects of advances in healthcare is that it is not good enough for those who have survived life-limiting...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Engagement with Patient Representatives on CervicalCheck and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Review Process (17 Dec 2019)

Kate O'Connell: ...should not be from a particular age group just because people are available, and that provision is made for it to be truly representative. I am concerned by Mr. Teap's comments on the rates of cervical cancer. Cervical cancer rates in Ireland were rising higher than anywhere else before cervical cancer screening was introduced. When RCOG was before us for a private meeting - we will...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the CervicalCheck Screening Programme: Discussion (18 Sep 2019)

Kate O'Connell: ...it there. There is a bit of confusion here. Let us say that Deputy Durkan has a laboratory and he is testing for other things, perhaps to do with other human or animal health. He is not doing cervical screening but he decides he wants to branch out, add this to his workload and add cervical screening. His laboratory applies for ISO. Does he pick up the phone and ask for INAB to come out?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the CervicalCheck Screening Programme: Discussion (18 Sep 2019)

Kate O'Connell: I understand that. However, in the case of State contracts, specifically the contracts for cervical and bowel screening, the ISO standard is specified. The contracts have been signed with the companies. MedLab Pathology had a laboratory in Manchester, with a guy working on his own, of whom INAB was blissfully unaware for nine months, until the laboratory applied for accreditation for the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the CervicalCheck Screening Programme: Discussion (18 Sep 2019)

Kate O'Connell: What about those people? Do the employees of CervicalCheck who are quality assurance experts work in cervical screening all the time?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the CervicalCheck Screening Programme: Discussion (18 Sep 2019)

Kate O'Connell: ...files and standards, etc., were examined - before retrospectively deeming him competent solely on the basis of the evidence it had to hand. This happened in the middle of an absolute crisis in cervical screening. It all seems generous, which is one way of describing it. I do not know what the best word to use is. I find it unorthodox. I find it very strange. Would there be any reason...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the CervicalCheck Screening Programme: Discussion (18 Sep 2019)

Kate O'Connell: ...audit - what would the impact have been? I ask Dr. McGuinness to talk me through what the impact would have been if the accreditation body had not been as generous. What would that have meant for cervical screening? What would it have meant for the accreditation body?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the CervicalCheck Screening Programme: Discussion (18 Sep 2019)

Kate O'Connell: ...the time, because then I could say it was part of a standard approach. The accreditation body has been in operation since 1985. It seems that in the middle of a serious health crisis involving cervical cancer screening, it decided to tick this box for a private company, thereby deeming that in the accreditation body's expert opinion - looking back - the laboratory was competent and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on the CervicalCheck Screening Programme: Discussion (18 Sep 2019)

Kate O'Connell: I will clarify to ensure that Mr. McCallion will revert with the correct information. MedLab was awarded the tender for CervicalCheck in May 2010. The laboratory did not open until August 2010 and did not obtain ISO accreditation for cervical screening until December 2011. I want to know whether it was testing smears without accreditation before December 2011. The same company - MedLab -...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Supplementary Report of Scoping Inquiry into CervicalCheck Programme: Discussion (4 Jul 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Okay, this is reassuring. If there is a range of 70% sensitivity but in some cases it is 85% or 90%, if he was at the lower end, and if the patient cohort was young and unlikely to have cervical cancer, it could technically be an outlier.

Public Accounts Committee: Health Service Executive Financial Statements 2018
2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Department of Health
Chapter 16 - Control of Private Patient Activity in Acute Public Hospitals (27 Jun 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Brilliant. I thank the Chairman. What is the annual cost of CervicalCheck? I am talking about the entity that is CervicalCheck from the time it was established to last year. What was the annual spend for that? The witnesses may not have this to hand. I am talking about staffing costs, the running of the building and also the contract costs to the different labs. I do not need to know...

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Kate O'Connell: ...money - did this for us. What recourse exists when the State pays fees to a professional body to act on its behalf in an expert role and that body does not do its job right? We have discussed CervicalCheck and the capacity issue for so long but, again, like the national children's hospital, it is worth remembering where CervicalCheck has come from. I imagine that the Chairman is very...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: CervicalCheck Screening Programme Update: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Apr 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Australia aims to eradicate cervical cancer in ten years.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: CervicalCheck Screening Programme Update: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Apr 2019)

Kate O'Connell: ...the answer. I do not follow Twitter in the sense that it is not where I get my official press releases. Anyway, the chief medical officer made a press statement stating any woman who had had a cervical smear test should have a further test as part of a reassurance measure provided the GP took the view that she required it. Moreover, the Minister asked CervicalCheck to make arrangements,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: CervicalCheck Screening Programme Update: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Apr 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Can she elaborate on that? We are in cervical screening and are transitioning to HPV. If there is HPV reflex going on, would it be fair to say that we are in a transition period? I thought it was a move from "A" to "B" but it is really a transition.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: CervicalCheck Screening Programme Update: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Apr 2019)

Kate O'Connell: ...we can eat into that backlog. That is a major concern for us because, again, there have been a couple of comments that it could take ten years or so to get through this. If the progression of cervical cancer is three, six, and nine years that is then sending a message out of this committee that is incorrect, which will feed the scaremongering and the anxiety related to this issue. ...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: CervicalCheck Screening Programme Update: Discussion (13 Feb 2019)

Kate O'Connell: ..., if the witnesses have that information? I do not want to repeat questions that were already asked and I have been keeping an eye on what has been going on. In terms of the eradication of cervical cancer, and we have spoken here before about the Australians being on track to eradicate cervical cancer within ten years from when they started, how we are we doing with our target? I know...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: CervicalCheck Screening Programme Update: Discussion (13 Feb 2019)

Kate O'Connell: I am a little uncomfortable with this new quality assurance, QA, lead, a consultant-level position. We had many QA people already in cervical services. Do they still exist?