Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join the Minister in paying tribute to Limerick woman Vicky Phelan and her family. She is very courageous for being prepared to fight for her rights and ensure that this serious matter became public. The women of Ireland owe her a deep debt of gratitude for exposing this dreadful situation. My thoughts are with her and her family, as they are with all women affected by this and the families of the 17 women who, unfortunately, have died.

I agree that we need to fully investigate and determine exactly what happened, how it happened and where the systems failed. It is important to establish where failures occurred and if individuals did not accept or carry our their responsibilities. There can be no excuse for the concealment of facts by those placed in positions of trust. People are very angry and upset, which is clear from the 8,000 phone calls to the helpline. It is most important that we learn lessons from this episode, which has seriously damaged the reputation of the screening programme and the health service overall.

I fully acknowledge that the Minister responded quickly and positively having become aware of Vicky Phelan's plight and the continuing revelations to the effect that many others have been made aware of mistakes in their diagnoses. The serious incident management team, which the Minister established so promptly, must be fully resourced and empowered to undertake this investigation and complete it as soon as possible in order to restore confidence in this very valuable service. Has the Minster been given an indication of the period necessary to undertake this work? I want his assurance that whatever resources the team requires will be continue to be made available until the work is completed.

The proposal to proceed with a scoping inquiry to report within two months is excellent. Hopefully, that inquiry will answer most of the outstanding questions and point to the way forward. We need to establish where responsibility lay and, above all, how we can ensure that this programme and all other cancer screening programmes have clear governance procedures, to define the actions to be taken and the persons responsible for their implementation. There must be no doubt about what actions need to be taken and who must take them at all levels of the programme. There must be a clear and definitive procedure to ensure that test results are conveyed to patients.

Every effort must be made to eliminate error, although I accept that mistakes can happen. Where a mistake is discovered there can be no delay in putting up the hand and admitting it. The onus must be placed on the appropriate personnel to ensure that this happens immediately and that the patient is informed without delay. A person's GP is the ideal individual to do so but that is a matter for the Minister and his officials to decide. Any delay can make a difference between life and death.

I join Vicky Phelan in encouraging women to continue going for cervical smears. I advise everyone to partake in the other cancer screening programmes such as BreastCheck, colon cancer screening and prostate testing that are available and which have saved lives. It is true there have been weakness and failures which we need to identify and redress but many lives have been saved.

It is essential that we all remember that the patient is at the centre of all healthcare provision. The rights of the patient must always be respected and protected. They must be treated with understanding, respect and kindness. Adverse results must be communicated immediately with compassion and the offer of ongoing support.

Quality of care is paramount in any aspect of healthcare. Using preventative medial care represents best use of financial resources, keeping people out of intensive care facilities. News that the Government is planning on moving to the more accurate HPV tests for cervical cancer is very welcome, and I welcome the Minister's announcement that it will happen this year. Perhaps the Minister can give us more detail on this.

It should be mandatory for the HSE to give proper weighting to quality of service and other non-financial elements when assessing tenders for outsourced testing. It is very important that we adopt a more balanced approach to assessing tenders. It is essential that cervical screening and all other health screening services are built on the principles of trust, transparency and governance. These are basic requirements which must be met and constantly monitored for the duration of the contract. I also support an ongoing internal-external quality audit of these contracts to ensure that the accepted terms of engagement are being adhered to. There can be no room for any slippage from the standards agreed to in the contract. We must aim to obtain a service which meets international best practice guidelines and standards. While we must acknowledge the Trojan work done by many healthcare professionals, it is essential that our healthcare systems have proper procedures for reporting abnormal practice behaviours and suspicious poor practice that jeopardises patient safety. There can be no room for poor practice, carelessness or any form or casual approach to patient safety. I particularly welcome the Minister's commitment to introduce a patient safety Bill that will provide mandatory disclosure of events such as we are considering today and ensure that patients are made aware of events which have the potential to adversely affect their health. I hope this legislation can be prioritised and progressed without delay.

I thank the Minister for coming to the House. I know that many of my colleagues wished to raise the matter and make suggestions. We all share the same aim, that this will not reoccur.