Patients face delays in biopsy results

A NUMBER of patients who underwent prostate gland biopsy tests at a Cork hospital face delays in getting results, due to outsourcing of the tests to Britain.

The temporary outsourcing arrangement was necessitated by the retirement of one histopathologist at the Mercy University Hospital (MUH) during the summer and the absence of another since the start of October due to sick leave.

A spokesperson for the hospital said the difficulty arose on October 5 when a histopathologist — who carries out microscopic examination of tissue to determine manifestations of disease — commenced sick leave.