Urgent solutions needed on CervicalCheck
Labour Women has noted with great concern that 17 women affected by the CervicalCheck controversy have died and are urging for urgent solutions to avoid such tragic errors from occurring into the future.
Chair of Labour Women Sinead Ahern commented: “We have all watched and listened with horror the last few days as the extent of the CervicalCheck crisis emerged and still continues to reveal the true extent of this crisis. This has been a very valuable service for all women in Ireland aged 25 and over and the impact of this has hit every household in the country.
“This level of error is unacceptable for a service that so many people put their trust in and it is of the utmost importance that we get to the bottom of this. Going into the future, an urgent re-evaluation of the operation of the service is vital so that this never happens again. This should include whether the outsourcing of Irish smear tests to the US has been a factor which raises questions as to whether outsourcing should continue into the future considering the concerns that have been raised in relation to this.
“CervicalCheck has been a valuable service to the women of Ireland and something that cannot be underestimated for saving many lives. In that regard, we strongly encourage all women due their smear test to make an appointment. However, people are right to feel concerned about what’s happening and this needs to be dealt with so that people aren’t questioning their results, and most importantly, so that lives are saved.”
“We encourage anyone who is concerned to contact the CervicalCheck Freephone Information line on 1800 45 45 55.”