Women should be reassured that testing at the National Cervical Screening Laboratory (NCSL) within the Coombe University Hospital in Dublin is "up to scratch", the Director of the NCSL has said.
Dr Cillian De Gascun was speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland as cervical screening at the recently opened laboratory has been paused due to accreditation suspension, the Health Service Executive has confirmed.
He reiterated that the issue relates to new governance and structural changes and not the technical quality of screening work.
When the Irish National Accreditation Board (INAB) carried out its annual inspection after the establishment of the NCSL they identified issues relating to the change management process, Dr De Gascun said.
"There were issues they felt weren't up to scratch," he said.
"Looking at it from our perspective, it's obvious that we underestimated the work that will be involved.
"With hindsight, we would have started that process earlier, and we would have been more comprehensive.
"We have made significant progress. But there are some minor non-conformances that we need to address.
"But we were confident and I can reassure the women, that the testing that has been performed at the Coombe is up to scratch."
Dr De Gascun said despite the suspension of accreditation, target testing times can still be met, once issues highlighted with INAB have been addressed.
CervicalCheck uses a US provider to process tests due to the lack of quality assured laboratories in Ireland to meet its needs.
The sending of samples to US laboratories is "not a bad thing", Dr De Gascun said but he said the further development of the NCSL will involve the repatriation of samples.
"One of the measures that has already been implemented is the reintroduction of cytopathology to specialist training in histopathology," he said.
"Because that had moved away with the samples gone overseas.
"So we've every confidence in the laboratories that are testing in the US.
"We absolutely want to repatriate samples, but we always need to contingency for issues like this."
Covid-19
Dr De Gascun said it was the right decision to stepdown testing of Covid-19 for the majority of the public but that there is still a need to be vigilant, as is the case with the annual flu virus.
Surveillance systems in relation to respiratory viruses have been enhanced in the last 18 months, he said, which act as "early warning systems".
"I think stepping down now is the right decision purely because we have to move into a situation where we can rely on our surveillance but also we need to have that agility and resilience that if something happens in the next three to six months, we can step up those structures again very quickly," he said.
