Harney: Urgent colonoscopies to be done within a month

ALL urgent colonoscopies will be performed within a month of referral by the end of this year, Health Minister, Mary Harney, said yesterday.

The HSE confirmed that about 820 patients are waiting more than three months for the bowel test used to help detect cancer.

Kilkenny woman, Susie Long, personified the consequences of delaying the test. She waited seven months for a colonoscopy and died in October 2007.