Over 300,000 cancer screenings have been delayed by the Covid crisis, which forced the suspension of services and reduced screening capacity.
Figures obtained by the reveal the true impact of the virus on testing programmes, which were suspended in March but have all since resumed.
Across screening programmes for breast, cervical, and bowel cancer, the National Screening Service (NSS), which is part of the HSE, planned to screen 433,100 people this year.
However, the suspension of services when Covid-19 struck in March has meant just one-third of this annual target was met by the end of September. BreastCheck and BowelScreen were more than 70% behind 2020 targets, while CervicalCheck was 63% behind.
The NSS said the pause in screening and reduction in capacity, both due to Covid-19, were impacting on all screening programmes.
A seven-month pause in services left BreastCheck almost 100,000 appointments behind target, with just over 38,000 women out of 138,000 screened by September.
A five-month pause in the bowel cancer screening programme has meant that BowelScreen is behind by almost 68,000 screening tests, with just over 27,000 screened by September out of a yearly target of 95,000. The screening programme resumed in early August.
CervicalCheck, which was paused for three months, has screened 37% of its 200,000 target for this year but concerns remain over a low uptake rate of less than 20% since screening resumed in July.
Consultant recruitment
The figures come as leading oncologist John Crown raised concerns on Friday over capacity issues, “tremendous waiting problems”, and the need to recruit more consultants.
He was speaking as part of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association’s (IHCA) Care Can’t Wait campaign, which highlighted cancer screening delays, waiting lists, and the need to recruit 73 consultant oncologists by 2028.
“The last thing patients need to hear is that we’d like to get you this scan, but we can’t do it for a month,” said Prof Crown, adding that the hospital system is “creaking at the seams”.
