Cancer group warns delay on results causing distress
A BACKLOG of 78,000 smear tests has built up in the wake of the cervical cancer scandal, it was revealed yesterday.
The Irish Cancer Society said long delays in receiving results is causing anxiety and distress for women.
And Fianna Fail claimed it was the Government’s decision to offer free screening during the Cervicalcheck controversy which has undermined the entire programme. Micheal Martin complained it is now taking 93 days to report on smear tests and specialist labs had not been resourced to deal with the decision.
He added: “There was no clinical rationale for this decision ever, it was a knee-jerk political reaction by the minister that has ended up damaging the overall programme and has cost about €10million, which I think would have been better used elsewhere in the health service.”
It emerged yesterday there is a backlog of 78,000 Cervicalcheck slides and a delay of 27 weeks in women receiving their results.
In the Dail, Leo Varadkar admitted the decision to allow free out-of-cycle smears had contributed to the backlogs as it prompted an extra 90,000 women to come forward for testing last year. The Taoiseach said: “We were under enormous pressure from enormous quarters to act quickly and everything we did was in good faith, and sometimes we acted perhaps from the heart rather than the head, but this decision was done in good faith.”
Pearse Doherty called for Simon Harris to be sacked. He added: “We are very clear in Sinn Fein, this minister is out of his depth and is not up to the job.” Mr Martin