Bon Secours says it did cervical smear tests for lab

The Bon Secours Hospital in Cork city has confirmed that it was one of two hospitals which carried out cervical smear tests on…

The Bon Secours Hospital in Cork city has confirmed that it was one of two hospitals which carried out cervical smear tests on behalf of a private laboratory.

It was revealed last week that two health boards and a hospital had engaged Clay mon Laboratories to carry out cervical smear testing in 1997.

The company subsequently subcontracted out the work to qualified staff in separate hospitals with the knowledge of the health boards involved.

Concerns were raised after it was revealed by the North Western Health Board that the rate of abnormal smear results was too low.

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The North Eastern Health Board and Beaumont had also engaged the laboratory. Some of the women tested were incorrectly told that their tests were clear.

A spokeswoman for the Bon Secours said that the contract had been accepted with the full approval of the hospital management and that the 500 tests were carried out by "a small number" of fully qualified staff.

She added that a review of their cervical screening programme had been initiated since the revelations but that it would be inappropriate to comment further until they saw the details of the North Western Health Board's internal review.

"Without the details of the report we don't know if the mistakes were made here," she said.

The fact that the hospital has not carried out any smear tests for the past six months was in no way connected to the current scandal, she said, but the relevant staff had taken on other professional duties.

No one was available at St Vincent's Hospital last night to comment on RTE reports that a senior spokesman there had said that they believed smear tests were carried out by employees in their time off, but that the hospital never had any dealings with Claymon.

Fine Gael's health spokesman, Mr Alan Shatter, will question the Minister for Health in the Dail on the controversy, asking him to detail the medical staff, hospitals and health boards involved.

In a statement released last night, he said that the Minister should clarify the situation "in the interests of the women concerned".

Mr Shatter called for national quality-control mechanisms and testing standards to ensure the integrity of the testing process and the accuracy of results.

"If he does not provide satisfactory answers . . . the Fine Gael front bench will be considering the tabling of an appropriate motion to ensure that women are provided with the medical care to which they are entitled," he said.