Cancer screenings down 60% on same period in 2019

The number of people screened for cancer was down 60 per cent in the first six months of 2020 compared to the same period last year, new figures reveal.

The State’s three cancer screening programmes – BreastCheck, BowelScreen and CervicalCheck – were all shut down due to the impact of Covid-19, with BreastCheck still yet to restart, and the other two operating at reduced capacity.

Figures released to The Irish Times show that across the three programmes, some 248,223 people were screened between January and June 2019; this compares to 99,286 people seen in the first six months of this year.

The largest drop off was in CervicalCheck, which had a 62.8 per cent fall in the number of people screened, while BowelScreen had a 61.8 per cent drop and BreastCheck 55.5 per cent.

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The decline in figures has raised fears that cancers will go undiagnosed, and has led to Opposition calls for emergency funding to restore services, as well as diagnostic pathways for people whose results require further investigation.

Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane said €10 million was needed to enable effective screening programmes in a Covid environment. "Extra capacity is going to be needed if we are to have any chance of catching up, in terms of staffing and physical infrastructure."

If [screening] isn’t happening you’ll have more missed cancer diagnoses . . . we need all facets of cancer care up and running in this Covid environment,” he said.

Labour leader and health spokesman Alan Kelly said the figures "speak for themselves".

“It’s incredibly important that we have a comprehensive catch-up programme to deal with the backlog and that we do not let standards slip or change the intervals for which we bring people to screening,” he said.

Staff redeployed

The Health Service Executive said the pause in screening was put in place in March to “protect participants and staff by complying with social-distancing guidelines”. Some staff from the screening programmes were also redeployed to other areas of the Covid-19 response.

CervicalCheck recommenced screening in July and BowelScreen in August, with BreastCheck likely to resume either this month or in October. Patients are being called at different stages, depending on the urgency of their appointment.

However, screening will take place under different conditions, said the HSE. “The [National Screening Service] must comply with all HSE and public health social-distancing guidelines, and reduced contact, to protect patients and staff where feasible during screening,” said a spokeswoman.

“Implementing the new policies and procedures required to achieve this are having an impact on capacity and activity within screening. At all stages, the screening pathways, schedules and rounds are affected,” she said.

Screening is designed to catch the early signs of cancer in people who are presumed to be healthy and do not have symptoms. It is not a diagnostic tool and no screening test is totally accurate.