‘No apology’ for cancer campaign that strained HSE

AN intensive campaign by the Irish Cancer Society (ICS) has been blamed for pushing the country’s cervical screening programme to a point where the Health Service Executive had to send tens of thousands of tests to the United States to be analysed.

John McCormack, chief executive of the Irish Cancer Society, said the organisation was making no apology for the fact that their €200,000 cervical screening awareness campaign launched in February 2005 had overloaded the system.

The average waiting time for a smear test in Ireland is four months but some women are having to wait for up to nine months for test results.