FG: 2,000 cancer cases could go undetected

THE row over the Government’s decision to select a US company to process Ireland’s cervical smear tests deepened last night after a Fine Gael TD claimed cancer could go undetected in up to 2,000 women.

Quest Diagnostics issued a statement accusing FG health spokesman Dr James Reilly of “distortion of facts” after he issued a statement saying a comparative study had shown that Quest “had a 30% lower pick-up rate” on high grade pre-invasive cervical cancer than St Luke’s Hospital in Dublin.

“If 300,000 smear tests are sent to Quest, this miss rate could see almost 2,000 women have their pre-invasive cervical cancer go undetected,” Dr Reilly said.

He called on Health Minister Mary Harney to defer signing a binding contract with Quest which will see the US company carry out laboratory testing services on behalf of the National Cervical Screening Programme.

Dr Reilly also claimed that the Western Health and Social Care Trust in Altnagelvin Hospital, where smears from the North West are currently tested, may be contemplating a legal challenge. The Trust had tendered for the national cervical screening contract.

“They have expressed concerns about the way in which their tender was assessed and have called on the National Cancer Screening Service (NCSS) to suspend the process until their complaint is assessed,” Dr Reilly said.

Last night a spokesperson for Quest said: “The facts are that Quest Diagnostics’ work is of the highest quality. We are independently accredited and regulated. Our work has eliminated the six-month backlog Irish women faced in getting a smear test. Our selection by the NCSS after a rigorous tendering process means that for the first time, Irish women will have a national screening service.”

The NCSS also refuted Dr Reilly’s claims and said it was seeking an urgent meeting with Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny on foot of his remarks.

The NCSS said it had recently offered Dr Reilly “a full personal briefing on the details of the rigorous two-stage procurement process it recently conducted” when naming Quest Diagnostics as the preferred bidder.

“Having declined the opportunity to avail of this briefing, the NCSS is surprised at his recent public comments and the inaccurate information he has consequently distributed within the public domain,” said an NCSS statement.

The NCSS described Dr Reilly’s reference to the comparative study of pick-up rates between Quest and St Luke’s as “an overly simplistic interpretation of figures originating from an unsuccessful bidder in the tender process”.

Dr Alan Smith, NCSS consultant in public health medicine said: “The analysis quoted by Dr Reilly was not a comparative analysis of identical samples. All cases marked ‘urgent’ were analysed in Irish labs. It is unsurprising that in such an instance an Irish lab would report higher figures.”