Campaigners Lorraine Walsh and Stephen Teap have said they were “shocked and disturbed” to hear that there were a total of 16 outsourced labs used for CervicalCheck, not six as was believed.
And scarier still, one of these was not even accredited to carry out the scans and was only granted the proper assurances retrospectively.
Ms Walsh is a cervical cancer survivor and Mr Teap lost his wife, Irene, to the disease and both now lead the 221+ campaign.
221 is the number of women known to have been affected by the misdiagnosed scans scandal.
The finding that 16 overseas labs, not 6 as was initially believed, was revealed in Dr Gabriel Scally’s Scoping Inquiry’s second report into the CervicalCheck screening programme.
Ms Walsh said: “Quality assurance is key to getting confidence back in screening in Ireland.
“When you look back at the screening system, Dr Scally said it was doomed to fail.
“It’s absolutely frightening to see how poor the governance was around it.
“But we can’t look back, we have to look forward.”
Mr Teap said they estimated that they have spent 340 hours, or two working months, voluntarily attending a HSE steering group formed after the scandal broke.
He said that as they were the only ones that had to break from work or home duties to attend, he agreed with Dr Scally’s assessment that they are being “exploited.”
Dr Scally presented his second report to a packed room full of media in Buswells Hotel in Dublin city centre, just yards from Leinster House where the Dáil was in session yesterday afternoon.
His primary findings in the latest report are that the number of labs involved was 16, not six as he had been previously told.
Many of the outsourcing was not approved by the HSE in advance.
And one lab, in Salford, Greater Manchester, was only retrospectively accredited as fit to carry out the tests.
Nonetheless, Dr Scally said he wanted to reassure the public, and women in particular, that he found no evidence that the tests were ever substandard.
He said: “It is profoundly disappointing that the Scoping Inquiry only learnt about the additional laboratories as a result of our extensive and intensive probing.
“There has been very limited evidence made available to the Scoping Inquiry to show that CervicalCheck was ever consulted actively and in writing about the potential or actual use of the 10 additional laboratories.”
Dr Scally added: “I find the circumstances surrounding the screening of Irish women’s slides in Salford particularly surprising, and disturbing, in terms of the level of governance expected in a public health programme.
“The issues raised again emphasise the importance of creating effective quality assurance processes within the CervicalCheck programme.”
