Patients waiting nine months for bowel cancer test

Patients are waiting up to nine months for a crucial test for bowel cancer, the Irish Cancer Society (ICS) said today.

Waiting times for a colonoscopy, which the most effective procedure for diagnosing bowel cancer, vary between one month and nine months, depending on the hospital patients are referred to.

However, according to the ICS, patients should have the test within six weeks of seeing their GP.

The society said patients attending the Midland Regional Hospital at Tullamore, Cavan General Hospital and Beaumont Hospital in Dublin could be waiting for up to five months, while those referred to Sligo General Hospital and Letterkenny General Hospital could have a seven month wait. In Cork, there is an eight month wait, while the Mater Misericordiae Hospital in Dublin has the longest waiting time of nine months.

Experts are calling for the introduction of a national bowel cancer screening programme by 2010, and extra services to help cut waiting times.

"We need to increase public awareness on risk factors for bowel cancer and bowel cancer signs and symptoms so that patients go to their GP without delay and their GP can refer them on for a consultant appointment and colonoscopy," said Professor Colm O'Morain, consultant gastroenterologist at the AMNCH Hospital Tallaght.

"This should happen in tandem with the implementation of a national bowel cancer screening programme. This will all lead to fewer patients presenting with advanced bowel cancer. However the system cannot currently cope with the numbers of patients presenting for colonoscopy unless we have more consultants and colonoscopy clinics are open later in the evening and at weekends."

The ICS is seeking the screening programme for those living in Ireland aged between 50 and 75, with significant funds allocated to the programme from the €15 million set aside for cancer services in Budget 2009.

More than 50 per cent of patients in Ireland are diagnosed with Stage 3 or 4 bowel cancer, which is the most advanced stage. Fewer than 5 per cent of patients with Stage 4 bowel cancer survive longer than five years.

Bowel cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in Ireland. There were 2,184 new cases in 2005, with 924 deaths from the disease.

A bowel cancer seminar looking at prevention, early detection and advances in treatment is taking place in the European Parliament Office in Dublin today, hosted by Fine Gael MEP Gay Mitchell.