Backlog won’t be clear till October

HSE warning as screening services set to resume

PLANS are under way to restart screening services next month, but it could take until October to clear the backlog of suspended tests, the Health Service Executive has said.

Letters will be sent to priority groups on July 6 with the resumption of CervicalCheck tests expected to take place the following week.

Dr Colm Henry, the HSE chief clinical officer, said that screening will involve the new HPV tests.

He told a HSE press briefing in Dublin that the reintroduction of cancer screening services will be done in a phased way.

‘It will take time to recover those levels of activity they had before and to clear those cases that were suspended in March,’ he added.

‘In regards cervical screening, letters will be going out on July 6 to patients advising them for screening for HPV tests that were due to launch until Covid came in the way.’

Dr Henry added that ‘they will be starting with priority groups, oneyear recalls and new participants to the screening programme’.

‘It will take some time to clear,’ he continued. ‘We are not going through them chronologically. We are beginning with priority groups. We expect to clear all those who were suspended by October.

‘It will take several months to get through those cases.’

He said that breast screening services were complicated because people had to attend a congregated setting; however, a number of screening services would be carried out in repurposed vans.

HSE chief executive Paul Reid said the organisation’s winter planning process will be carried out during a time of unprecedented and heightened level of ‘uncertainty and unpredictability’.

‘First of all we have to manage our capacity to protect for a second surge. We have to manage social distancing across our healthcare settings in a way that’s more important than many other sectors would have to,’ he added.

Mr Reid warned that surgeries can take up to three times longer because of safety guidelines.

People attending hospital for elective surgery will have to isolate for 14 days and undergo a test for Covid-19 some 72 hours prior to having their surgery.

Mr Reid said the average number of close contacts of Covid-19positive cases is 4.6 people.

He said this has risen ‘marginally’ over the last few weeks.

‘We have been hovering around two and then three but it’s hovering about 4.6 now,’ he added.

The HSE’s chief operations officer, Anne O’Connor, said there has been a ‘significant and marked’ increase in the use of virtual and telehealth.

Dr O’Connor said that the health service can no longer go back to the days of outpatients sitting in busy waiting rooms.

‘We need to look at a way of delivering outpatient services in a way that is safe for people attending and for staff, and ensure we can meet people’s needs,’ she added.

‘We are looking at how we can further develop telehealth and can deliver services in different ways.’

The HSE also hopes to launch its contact-tracing app next week following Cabinet approval.

‘Starting with the priority groups’