B.C. quietly outsourcing cervical cancer screening to U.S. company

Thousands of pap smear samples from B.C. women have been sent to an American company for cancer screening amid a pandemic backlog, CTV News has learned. 

The Provincial Health Services Authority entered an agreement with Quest Diagnostics one year ago, even though that company has a history of data breaches and lawsuits from women whose cancer was undetected. 

The company was one of few with any available capacity, says chief provincial diagnostic officer Craig Ivany, adding that it also met the standard for laboratory quality and privacy procedures. However, Ivany didn’t directly answer whether PHSA knew about the company’s issues.

“We did the due diligence through our legal department, through our procurement department, we asked all the right questions associated with privacy and their systems,” he said. “There's checks and balances in our quality systems on both ends, for sure, and we make sure our medical staff who ultimately oversee this are satisfied with the rigours we put in place.”

Currently, the waits for pap results have gone down to eight or 10 weeks, with the PHSA’s goal being four to six.

QUEST DIAGNOSTICS SILENT

CTV News made multiple attempts over several days to discuss cybersecurity and lab standards with Quest Diagnostics, but the company did not respond. 

Quest was one of the companies sued by Irish women after their country's health-care system outsourced screening more than a decade ago, and more recently the company has been the victim of several data breaches and cyber-security incidents.

However, Ireland continues to use Quest for screening of pap samples. Ontario's government also relied on the company, which is one of the largest laboratory diagnostics companies in the U.S., to clear a backlog of COVID-19 tests during the pandemic. 

CONCERNS AROUND OUTSOURCING

Health-care providers recommend women get a pap smear every three years, as it’s currently the best method to detect abnormal cells that can indicate cervical cancer may be forming.

Renee Merrifield, the former Opposition health critic for BC United, pointed to the outsourcing as another example of women’s health care taking a back seat to other issues, with troubling questions outstanding.

“It's not necessarily being disclosed to patients that their actual physical biology is going out of the country, and then you layer on top of that privacy concerns,” she said. “B.C. needs to address wait times more efficiently within the public health-care system … my biggest fear is we actually become dependent on the U.S. system.” 

The province is already sending some Lower Mainland cancer patients across the border to Bellingham for radiation treatment in the wake of excessive waits in B.C. 

“We're in the process of repatriation. This was never intended to be a long-term solution,” said Ivany, noting 70 per cent of screening is now done in B.C.

“(What) I'd want my sister, my mother, my wife to know, is frankly we have done all we can to make sure we have a high-quality lab service when we work with Quest and when we're doing it at home,” he emphasized. “They will receive the same kind of quality service wherever that testing is being provided.”