Women 'can't trust CervicalCheck until slides are tested in this country'

A 2019 report compiled by Dr Gabriel Scally in the wake of the CervicalCheck scandal recommended that analysis of smear tests be carried out in Ireland in a new National Cervical Screening Laboratory. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Women cannot trust the CervicalCheck screening programme until the testing of slides is carried out in this country, survivors and campaigners have said.

Arising from Dr Gabriel Scally’s 2018 report in the wake of the CervicalCheck scandal, the Department of Health decided to develop the National Cervical Screening Laboratory in Ireland in conjunction with Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital in Dublin.

However, all samples are still being sent abroad for analysis as services at the Coombe Hospital, which previously handled around 10% of smear slides, have yet to resume following a cyberattack.

Calling for all samples to be processed in Ireland, cancer survivor and member of the CervicalCheck steering committee Lyn Fenton said: "People would have a bit more faith in the system, maybe, if that was the way, certainly there would be more transparency and what is definitely needed is more transparency and more honesty — to talk to us like we're humans, to deal with us like we're humans."

'Still living with the consequences' 

She said women will not have confidence in CervicalCheck until all of the recommendations in the Scally Report are fully implemented.

"The hype around it kind of dies down, but the reality of it is that women like myself and lots of other women are still living with the consequences of it," she said.

"We're living with it daily, some people aren't living at all, they're so broken and so traumatised, and it's an ongoing battle to even just get out of bed for some women.

Even now, many years down the line, we still feel that we're not being heard or not being listened to. 

"They might hear, but they don't follow up with actions."

This was echoed by fellow steering committee member Rosie Condra, who said: "I didn't realise my sample initially was being outsourced, and to me, the outsourcing of a medical procedure is like an investigation was outsourced to another country. 

I'm a citizen, I'm here, I thought my sample was being reviewed here."

She added that a "brain drain" of qualified staff means that bringing the service back to Ireland has been extremely challenging.

The HSE admitted that "increased market demand and the continued decline of the cytology industry in Ireland, the UK, and globally" has impacted the availability and recruitment of cytopathology staff, namely consultant cytopathologists.

While connectivity with the Coombe has now been restored following the cyberattack, tests are still not being processed there, as the restart plan is "contingent on a number of operational factors, including building up the consultant cytopathology workforce".

In the interim period, all samples are being processed by CervicalCheck’s other contracted laboratory, Quest Diagnostics in America.

The spokesperson said the HSE hopes that a new bespoke laboratory providing cytology, HPV testing, training, audit, and research facilities will be built and operating by the end of the year.

This reported was edited on July 29 to clarify that the Department of Health made a strategic decision to develop the NCSL in Dublin, arising from the Scally report. The Scally report itself did not include this specific recommendation.