Dáil hears call for immediate restart of cancer-screening services

Minister for Health Simon Harris has defended the phased restart of cancer-screening programmes later this summer as calls were made for their immediate recommencement.

Mr Harris said modification of screening units had to be completed before services could get up and running again.

Restart dates for screening would be announced “by the end of this month”, he said.

Invitations will then be issued on a stepped basis according to clinical prioritisation but he told Fianna Fáil health spokesman Stephen Donnelly "I won't be satisfied like you until these programmes are all back up and running".

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Cancer-screening services including BreastCheck, CervicalCheck as well as those for diabetic retina and bowel cancer were halted because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Minister said CervicalCheck and the diabetic retina screening are expected to restart first followed by BreastCheck and by bowel screening.

“There’s a lot of work going on to modify screening units and this obviously has to be completed before the restart.”

They also had to do a final analysis on the impact the Covid-19 measures were likely to have on patient throughput.

Mr Donnelly said GPs can take smear tests now. “That should mean that cervical screening should restart now but that’s not what’s happening.”

During a question and answer session in the Dáil Mr Donnelly said there would only be a phased restart of screening “by the end of the summer”.

This means that “hundreds of thousands of people are not going to be screened at the same time as doctors are saying they are ready to do screening now”.

Mr Donnelly said that on radio on Thursday the clinical director of BreastCheck said “we’re not in a position to give you any kind of indication as to when we hope to resume full services”.

The Wicklow TD also expressed concern that for bowel screening there was a backlog of several months to provide care for people already identified as high risk “and the implication seems to be the screening won’t reopen until this backlog is dealt with”.

“The logic there for CervicalCheck and bowel check screening seems to be, because we can’t provide the post-screening care. We’re simply not going to screen you.’ That worries me greatly.”

Mr Harris said the four national screen services were paused like in many countries around the world as well as in Northern Ireland. “It was put in place to protect patients and protect staff as well.”

He stressed however that people already being treated before the pandemic hit “have continued to be treated. For example BreastCheck women who’ve been screened continue to have their assessments and treatment plans mapped out.

“Surgeries continue to be scheduled for CervicalCheck colposcopy assessments and follow-up treatments continue for women who were screened before the pause.”