Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

28. To ask the Minister for Health his views on whether the two site visits conducted on the laboratories that conducted the cervical screening programme over the ten years of the programme to be a sufficient way to ensure standards and quality of the screening process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28379/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Currently, the testing of cervical smear tests is carried out by the following three institutions:

- Quest Diagnostics Inc, Teterboro, New Jersey USA;

- MedLab Pathology Ltd, Dublin (US company); and

- Coombe Women and Infant’s University Hospital, Dublin. 

Approximately 50% of the testing is done in Ireland, with the remaining 50% being done outside Ireland. Currently, approximately 250,000 smear tests are processed each year.

The clinical advice is that there is no evidence that the clinical and technical aspects of the programme have performed outside or below international standards or the quality guidelines set for the programme.  Smear tests can produce both false positive and false negative results.  However, the Scoping Inquiry and the Independent Clinical Expert Panel Review will provide independent and international scrutiny of performance.

The site visits to the laboratories in 2011 and 2014 were additional and complementary to the continued external accreditation of laboratories, the continued participation by laboratories in external quality assurance schemes and the continuous monitoring of quality metrics with reference to the Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Cervical Screening (Cytopathology, HPV testing).