State lab continuing private work despite CervicalCheck screening interruption

The State’s only cervical cancer screening lab is continuing to carry out paid private work, despite not having processed a single sample for CervicalCheck in almost a year.

The screening of private smears is carried out with the same staff and equipment as is normally used for public work in the CervicalCheck programme, a Health Service Executive spokesman has confirmed.

Asked how the lab was able to continue private work when public screening stopped after a cyberattack on the hospital last December, the spokesman said the amount of private work was limited.

Processing non-programme work has assisted staff in “maintaining their proficiency”, he said, and is done “in line with the terms of the 2008 consultant contract”.

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While the Coombe lab has failed to process any CervicalCheck slides since last December, almost 160,000 samples were sent to labs in the United States for processing in the first seven months of this year. This is in spite of promises made in the aftermath of the 2018 CervicalCheck controversy that the processing of slides would be returned to Ireland.

The lengthy pause in carrying out CervicalCheck work is due to a combination of factors, according to the National Screening Service, including “the significant cyberattack it suffered in December 2021 and staff absence due to illness”.

There are also issues around the ability of newer staff to report CervicalCheck slides. In order to do work on the public cervical screening programme, newly-appointed consultant cytopathologists have to fulfil a number of clinical criteria, including the reporting of 200 training slides under the supervision of a consultant from the Coombe.

According to the HSE, three consultants reporting for the programme have provided the evidence required. “A further one medical consultant is currently in the process of accumulating their evidence and will be able to report when that is achieved. A workforce plan to continue recruitment to consultant level posts is in place.”

Construction of a new National Cervical Screening Laboratory building at the Coombe began in January 2021 and was completed last month.

Dr Cillian de Gascún has been appointed as interim director of the facility, due to start operations by the end of the year.

Dr de Gascún, who became a familiar figure during the Covid-19 pandemic as director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, will “lead out” on the commencement and operation of the NCSL, according to the HSE. “As the first dedicated NCSL resource, the interim director will work exclusively for the new laboratory as it prepares to become operational.”

The new facility has to be officially accredited before it can process slides for CervicalCheck. “All going well with the validation of the new facility and equipment, it is expected that the first accreditation visit will take place in the second half of November or early December,” the HSE said.

It is planned the new facility will “grow to” providing education, training and research facilities, occupying up to 30 per cent of the building, as was envisaged when it was first proposed as a national centre of expertise for cervical screening. However, the HSE said in the short term the priority is to get the lab operational “to serve the women of Ireland”.