Harris: Keeping patient reps in the dark ‘regrettable’
Minister for Health Simon Harris has said it is “highly regrettable” that patient representatives were kept in the dark on the latest CervicalCheck controversy. The HSE has now ordered a review after 800 women were not given the results of their smear tests because of an IT glitch in a US lab.
The tests, which were sent to the Quest Diagnostics laboratory in Chantilly in Virginia, were carried out between October 1, 2018 and June 25 of this year and were mainly repeat HPV tests, however a small number of smears affected are outside this time period.
Patient advocates Stephen Teap and Lorraine Walsh, who are both on the CervicalCheck steering committee, were only told of the issue around 45 minutes before the story broke on RTÉ last Thursday.
The Department of Health was informed of the glitch on June 25, even though it initially said that the HSE had first told them on July 10.
Mr Teap and Ms Walsh said it was inconceivable that the Department of Health and the HSE had not discussed the issue before a meeting of the steering committee on June 26. However, the issue was never brought up or mentioned to them at this meeting.
Ms Walsh said:
They have lied to us, I feel wronged because I thought that I could trust them, I thought that we had built up good relationships.
“They are telling us what suits them to tell us and they are leaving out other things, that’s the way I feel and this is certainly one of the things that you would think would be discussed at a CervicalCheck steering committee,” she said.
Speaking as the review was announced, Minister Harris said he was first told of the problem last Wednesday — a day before the patient advocates.
“What happened was an individual rep had come in from a member of the public asking questions about where was their test,” said the minister.
“My department had been probing this with the HSE as an individual rep on the 25th of June they became aware that there was an IT glitch, they asked the HSE to investigate how many women this impacted and my understanding is on July 10 the HSE reverted to the department on that regard and the department informed me on the evening of Wednesday, July 10,” he said.
“My understanding is that the patient reps became aware on the day the story broke.
“I think it’s highly regrettable that they, and the department, and myself weren’t made aware earlier, but at this stage, the importance has to be on making sure that the women impacted get the results.
“I think the review can look into other matters as to why things were or weren’t escalated and who knew what in the HSE,” said Mr Harris.
President of Dublin City University, Professor Brian MacCraith, will act as an independent external chairperson for the review.
