FIFTEEN HOSPITALS have been selected to perform colonoscopies for the national bowel cancer screening programme which is due to begin next January.
Some 31 public hospitals sought to be involved in the initial phase of the screening programme but only half of them were chosen on the basis that they expect to achieve independent accreditation in the next 12 to 18 months, and have the capacity to do the work.
The hospitals selected include Cavan, Letterkenny, Sligo, Mayo, Ennis, Tullamore, Kerry and Wexford general hospitals as well as Louth County Hospital in Dundalk, South Tipperary General Hospital in Clonmel, the Mercy Hospital in Cork, and four Dublin hospitals including St Vincent’s, Tallaght, Connolly and St James’s.
Tony O’Brien, director of the national cancer screening service, said the selection process involved two visits to hospitals last September and December. A report on the findings of these visits indicated that after the initial visit, four hospitals were requested to take immediate action to resolve “decontamination issues”.
On that visit, waiting times for colonoscopies reported by the hospitals “ranged from two to seven months and occasionally longer”. Some 73 per cent of services did not conduct regular audits and a process for the vetting of new referrals had not been agreed in 56 per cent of units. Hospitals then put in place action plans and “remarkable” improvements were evident by the December visits.
Men and women aged 60-69 years will be offered free bowel cancer screening when the programme begins next year. It is expected about 5-6 per cent of those screened, an estimated 5,000-6,000 people a year, will require follow-up colonoscopies after providing an initial sample of their stools. These colonoscopies will in some cases rule out the need for any treatment, and in other cases will detect polyps before they become cancerous or pick up early signs of cancer.
Mr O’Brien stressed the screening programme was for those with no symptoms and it would not interfere with waiting times for colonoscopies among those who already had symptoms.
Hospitals which have not been selected to carry out colonoscopies for the initial phase of the screening programme may be used when the programme is extended in future – if they receive external accreditation.
Hospitals such as Galway University Hospital, Cork University Hospital, the Mater and Beaumont in Dublin, Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda and Limerick Regional Hospital will each require investment of more than €1 million before they can partake.