New CervicalCheck lab will not be fully operational for five years

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said the new National Cervical Screening Laboratory will process around 10% of CervicalCheck slides by March and will then 'ramp up as quickly as possible'. Picture: Brian Lawless

It will be another five years before the new CervicalCheck lab is fully operational and, even then, some slides will be sent aboard.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has said the new National Cervical Screening Laboratory which opened late last year in the Coombe Hospital will be processing around 10% of CervicalCheck slides by March and it intends "to ramp up as quickly as possible" after that.

However, he warned that it will take years to train up the specialised staff required after all lab screening was previously outsourced abroad.

Ensuring that the examination of CervicalCheck slides returned to Ireland was a key priority for Vicky Phelan and other members of the 221+ campaign group.

Dr Gabriel Scally was highly critical of the system employed by labs in the US in his initial report into the CervicalCheck scandal.

“Slides were sent to labs all over the place that CervicalCheck had no idea about that didn't meet the required quality standards that were asked for in the contracts," Dr Scally said of the arrangements that were previously in place.

Dr Gabriel Scally was highly critical of the system employed by labs in the US in his initial report into the CervicalCheck scandal. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins Photos

The new facility at the Coombe is being led by interim director Dr Cillian De Gascun, and lead pathologist Dr Aoife Doyle. The hospital has already recruited 11.9 additional whole time equivalent (WTE) staff for the National Cervical Screening Laboratory.

"It is now staffing up with histopathology and various other skill sets, but because screening was shut down in Ireland, it is having to train up a whole new group of healthcare professionals because the skill set has been lost to some extent. That does take a little bit of time," said Mr Donnelly.

However, he added that the timeframe he has discussed with the lab is "about five years", adding that "we will always want some samples going abroad" to ensure we are not reliant on a single facility.

It is understood that when fully operational the Coombe lab will process around 85% of slides.

Stressing that the long timeline for recruiting staff is not a funding issue, Mr Donnelly said: "In terms of the five years, I did press and ask if we could go faster. The lab will if it can. The point it made was that it is about training up new healthcare professionals.

Even quite skilled clinicians who are coming in require several years of training to be able to analyse the individual slides and samples.

A spokesperson for the HSE said the laboratory is being developed to become a national centre of excellence for cervical screening. It will provide an opportunity to expand the training and development of staff related to cervical screening in Ireland.

The spokesperson added that recruitment of skilled staff will be "a top priority for several years" as the lab increases the number of CervicalCheck samples it receives.

In the meantime, the recruitment of staff, from administration assistants to histopathologists, is a priority.

"A key factor for the immediate and long-term success of the NCSL is the availability and recruitment of cytopathology staff, namely consultant cytopathologists, in the face of increased market demand and the continued decline of the cytology industry in Ireland and globally," said the spokesperson.