Still waiting on Scally lab outsourcing report

22 March 2019

Responding to reports on the implementation review of the 50 recommendations from the Scally Inquiry, Labour Health spokesperson Alan Kelly has said there is still no sign of the report on the outsourcing of work from labs, but based on today’s news, the Government must act quickly to implement open disclosure and resource the National Cancer Registry.

Deputy Kelly said:

“The flawed open disclosure policy that is still in place in our Health Service must be swiftly addressed and I expect the Minister for Health to outline his immediate plans to do this when the report is formally published. This should not be dragged out any longer, we need legislation, and there must be enough staff in the National Cancer Registry to ensure data is recorded. 

“It is welcome that progress is being made on the 50 recommendations made by Dr Scally in his first report, however it is not clear if this latest report addresses the outsourcing of work from contracted labs.

“We were told in mid-February that the report in relation to the laboratories used by Cervical Check would be published soon.

“This piece of work was to analyse comprehensively what happened in relation to the laboratories that Cervical Check were using over the years of operation. There was to be a complete forensic analysis of the quality assurances in place both from the HSE to the contracted laboratories and furthermore on the internal quality assurance in the laboratories themselves.

“We found out from the initial Scally Report that the contracted laboratories were in some cases subcontracting their work to other laboratories. We need to know why this wasn’t known by the HSE previously?

“If there is more subcontracting we need to know why it wasn’t revealed to Dr Scally previously? What level of subcontracting was there and what quality assurances were being used by the HSE?

“We need to know everything about the contracts in place in all cases, when they were negotiated, by whom, at what price and what quality assurances were in place across the board.

“This was a large piece of work that Dr Scally was conducting since last September. It is absolutely imperative and essential to getting to the bottom of the Cervical Check Scandal.

“It has taken six months already and must be completed by now so I look forward to it being published soon. Dr Scally knew his terms of reference and the haste with which this was needed. It is imperative it’s published now. If not the Minister must explain why.”

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