CervicalCheck scandal: One year on, no signs of abating

Good morning.

It has been nearly a full year since Vicky Phelan stood on the steps of the Four Courts and delivered an emotionally charged statement that would unearth a medical and political scandal.

It would emerge that 221 women who were diagnosed with cervical cancer were not informed of an audit that revised their earlier, negative smear tests. In a bid to quell the public anger and worry, the Government announced that any woman who wanted a free out-of-cycle smear test could avail of one.

Last year, 90,000 extra women presented for a smear test. The upshot has been there is now a backlog of almost 80,000 women who are waiting up to 33 weeks to receive their results. The length of time that women are being asked to wait has only worsened in recent months.

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One of the most contentious issues has been this: Did Minister for Health Simon Harris announce this measure without consultation with the national screening service? Was he warned this overload may happen?

A new document represents a potential bombshell. In a submission to the Oireachtas Committee on Health, former clinical director of CervicalCheck Grainne Flannelly outlined her version of events.

Flannelly was the first high-profile person to stand aside from her role in the immediate aftermath of the smear-test controversy.

In this new memo, Flannelly says she had concerns from the get-go. She said that in the hours before the Government announced the plan, she advised against it. She said she told senior health officials that such a plan would “fundamentally undermine the screening programme.”

Flannelly says she aired these concerns to a senior HSE official, who subsequently had a discussion with an unnamed official from the Department of Health.

In the correspondence to the committee, she said that after she aired her concerns a follow-up conversation happened within the hour between a senior health official and the HSE. A decision was made to proceed with the free tests “in any case”.

Sources in Fianna Fáil have indicated the issue could be serious and could even threaten the dying days of the confidence-and-supply agreement.

Meanwhile, the interim national director of the National Screening Service, Damien McCallion, will appear before the same committee this morning where he will face extensive questioning from TDs on all of the topics above.

He will say the HSE is doing “its utmost” to find solutions to these waiting times, and he will apologise again to women for the delays and for the upset caused.

The HSE will report it has seen substantial improvements in the turnaround times with two of our three laboratories. “We are working closely on an improvement plan with the third laboratory. We are absolutely focused on reducing waiting times for results as quickly as possible,” Mr McCallion will say in his opening statement.

That’s not the only issue, though, as the Government continues to struggle to get to grips with the controversy. Mr McCallion will reveal a review of smear tests by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) will not be completed for another six months.

“In recent weeks the laboratories have commenced the transfer of slides. RCOG estimate it will take six months for the process to conclude,” he will say.

The committee will hear of issues, too, with the expansion of a public lab for testing at the Coombe. The HSE recently decided to expand the public laboratory capacity, and an agreement was reached with the Coombe Women’s and Infants University Hospital to do so. This was to provide a better balance between public and private laboratory capacity provision.

“While we are planning for a rapid building programme through a modular development it will still take a number of years to implement, primarily due to the workforce challenges,” Mr McCallion will state.

That’s not all. No date has been given for the implementation of the more accurate HPV testing. The HSE is looking for formal bids from laboratory service operators. But it has identified “significant challenges and concerns in the provider community that we are addressing as we move into the tendering process, to ensure that we are successful in acquiring a laboratory service provider”.

With backlogs, missed deadlines and new challenges emerging almost every month, the controversy over the CervicalCheck scandal shows no sign of abating one year on.

Here's a piece on the latest revelations.

Surprise! It’s another Brexit twist

You can say what you want about Theresa May, but she’s full of surprises.

The biggest surprise is she has clung on through confidence motions, crushing and historic defeats, all-out party warfare and full-scale rebellion among her own ranks. Yesterday the prime minister pulled another curiosity out of the bag when she announced she is going to consult with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in an attempt to get a new deal over the line.

The latest Brexit twist makes our lead today.

Any deal must include the withdrawal agreement, she said, pointing out the EU 27 had made it clear there is no room to negotiate on this. May has indicated if she cannot find an agreed way forward, she is now seeking an extension to article 50 in order to delay Brexit once again. This would be a short extension, not extending beyond May 22nd so the UK does not have to take part in EU elections. Today, all eyes will be on Jeremy Corbyn.

Regardless of events across the water, the Irish Government is continuing to step up preparations for a potential no-deal Brexit. German chancellor Angela Merkel is to meet Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at Government buildings tomorrow. It is expected they will discuss the future of the Border, and how to deal with the issue if the UK crashes out without a deal.

Here's a piece from Fiach Kelly about how Merkel plans to visit Dublin for 'clearer picture' of Irish preparations for no-deal Brexit.

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Playbook

Dáil Éireann

At 10.30am Minister for Rural and Community Affairs Michael Ring takes questions on his brief.

Leader’s Questions will be taken at midday.

At 12.32pm there will be questions on promised legislation.

At 13.02pm Leo Varadkar will take Taoiseach’s questions.

Topical Issues will be taken at 14.47pm.

At 15.35pm Private Members’ business will be taken with a Fianna Fáil motion on education.

At 17.35pm Government business will be taken - including the Thirty-fifth Amendment of the Constitution (Divorce) Bill 2016. This is the proposed amendment to the Constitution of Ireland to alter the provisions regulating divorce.

A number of other Government Bills will be discussed including the Health Service Executive (Governance) Bill 2018. This provides for the establishment of a nine-person board for the HSE. The Retention of Records Bill 2019 is also up for discussion. This provides for historically significant documents from the work of the redress bodies to be retained by the National Archives and sealed for 75 years from the date of transfer.

At 22.15pm, the Dáil adjourns.

Seanad

Commencement matters will be taken at 10.30am.

At 11.30am the order of business will be taken.

Then at 12.45pm, Private Members’ business is up. This includes the Aircraft Noise (Dublin Airport) Bill 2018; if passed this will see Fingal County Council appointed as the independent noise regulator.

At 16.00pm, there will be statements on developments regarding the Irish Language.

At 17.15pm, the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform (Amendment) Bill 2019 will be discussed. This would require the courts to take into account a borrower’s personal circumstances before issuing a repossession order.

Committees

At 9am, the Joint Committee on Health will meet to discuss the crisis in the CervicalCheck programme and will hear from representatives from CervicalCheck and the HSE.

Also at 9am, the Joint Committee on Justice and Equality meets to discuss the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation, also known as GDPR.

At 9.30am, the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government will seek an update on the National Emergency Co-ordination Group.

The Joint Committee on Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht meets at 13:30pm to talk about the socio-economic profile of the seven Gaeltacht areas in Ireland.

At 14.00pm, former secretary general of the European Commission Catherine Day will speak at the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs on the future of Europe.

Another interesting hearing takes place at 14.30pm when the Joint Committee on Transport, Tourism and hears from Sport Ireland about funding granted by it to the Football Association of Ireland.