Danger of an overblown exercise that takes months and yields no new insights, says Brid Smith TD
Press Release- Bríd Smith TD, People Before Profit 04/05/2018
TD calls for short focused review of cervical screening service
Danger of an overblown exercise that takes months and yields no new insights, says Brid Smith TD
Bríd Smith TD has called on Minister Simon Harris to focus any inquiry into the actual consequences of the outsourcing of cervical screening in 2008.
The Dublin South Central TD said the core issue remains a simple one, “did the decision to outsource cervical screening result in a deterioration of the quality of the screening and did this put women’s lives at risk?”
She continued to say: “Clearly there is a myriad of things that could and need to be looked at, but the key and most urgent issue is- did the political decision to outsource to private multinational companies result in increased risks to women.
“The reason this is urgent is that if this decision did result in poorer outcomes because then the issue is- are we still using the same companies with the same methods of screening and the same staffing procedures?”
The TD said she has made a submission to the Minister in relation to any inquiry and asked that it seek answers to very specific questions around the labs used in the screening service and how these compared to the service used before the decision by Mary Harney and the Fianna Fail/Green government to outsource the service in 2008.
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Contact- Bríd Smith TD- 087 909 0166
Nick Lee (Press Officer)- 087 615 6473