O'Rourke criticises delay in smear test results

Delays in getting results from cervical smear tests have been criticised by the Dáil deputy, and former health minister, Mary O'Rourke.

She said the "big difficulty" with cervical cancer was the length of time it took to get the smear test result. "So that if you have your screening done today or tomorrow, it takes, it seems to me, an inordinate length of time to get the result of that," she said.

"So I would hope that one of the improvements which I would like to see in that whole cervical cancer screening area is speed of analysis and speed of feedback to the patient."

Late last year, the HSE began outsourcing the analysis of smear tests abroad because some women were waiting for as long as six months for their results.

The decision to outsource the work was criticised by the Well Woman Centre which said it could lead to inconsistencies in the interpretation of results by Irish doctors.

Mrs O'Rourke also said she hoped that a cervical smear vaccination programme would begin next year.

"It's about time, isn't it?" she said. About 70 women die in this State every year from cervical cancer.

Rates here are among the highest in Europe and this has been attributed to the absence of a national cervical screening programme.

Mrs O'Rourke was speaking when she opened the new women's health centre at the private Beacon Hospital in Dublin's Sandyford yesterday.

The clinic provides a range of services such as emergency gynaecological procedures, cervical smear tests, contraceptive advice and early pregnancy assessment.

Cervical smear tests cost €90 at the clinic with results available in two to three weeks. A general consultation on a first visit costs €200.

Asked if it was unfair that women on low incomes could not use such services, Mrs O'Rourke said the hospital's services were available through the National Treatment Purchase Fund so if someone was waiting too long for a gynaecological procedure they could apply to the NTPF to have it done privately.

She said she did not originally agree with the policy of co-location, which involves locating private health facilities in the grounds of public hospitals.

"I was a bit dubious about it, but now the more I work it through in my head . . . I realise that one can help the other," she said.

"It's all about the patient."