GPs in Kilkenny have expressed serious concern about the risk to patients from a large backlog in reporting cancer test results in the southeast.
Patients’ diagnosis and treatment for cancer could be delayed by the backlog at the pathology lab at University Hospital Waterford, the doctors have warned.
More than 5,000 patients have endured waits for test results of up to six months as a result of staffing shortages at the lab.
After details of the delays emerged in March, the Kilkenny branch of the Irish College of General Practitioners wrote to Health Service Executive (HSE) bosses warning of the potential for “avoidable adverse clinical outcomes”.
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“The risk of delayed histology reporting for thousands of patients, for periods between one and six months, raises serious concerns regarding delay in the diagnosis and initiation of appropriate management,” according to the letter, seen by The Irish Times.
“Many of these patients will already have experienced other significant time delays,” the letter signed by Dr Justin Kwong, chair of the Kilkenny group, in mid-March states.
“Such a cumulative delay at each stage of the patient journey and ongoing diagnostic uncertainty is a serious patient quality and safety issue, especially for any person with a cancer diagnosis.”
The lab delay is causing doctors additional administrative and clinical workload burdens, Dr Kwong pointed out, thereby exposing them to “increased patient frustration, dissatisfaction and additional microlegal risk”.
Dr Kwong called for a “real-time, urgent and ongoing solution” to clear the backlog, and for patients with significantly delayed reports to be notified directly and in writing by the HSE.
The HSE replied last month through Gerard O’Callaghan, chief executive of the South/Southwest Hospital Group, and Declan Lyons, chief executive of the Ireland East Hospital Group, who chair the safety incident management team set up to lead efforts to clear the backlog.
They apologised for “any inconvenience, anxiety or stress” caused to patients and GPs, and said extra resources had been put in place to clear the backlog, including evening and weekend working at the lab and outsourcing to a retired member of staff.
Last month, The Irish Times asked the South/Southwest Hospital Group a series of detailed questions about the delays, which it declined to answer. A spokesman said urgent samples were being prioritised and promised the management team will provide an update when the backlog is cleared.
The HSE letter promised the backlog would be cleared within a fortnight. Asked in recent days whether it had been cleared, and how many patients have been contacted, the South/Southwest Hospital Group did not reply.
