Waterford cancer lab backlog leaves up to 6,000 patients in limbo

Bosses at Waterford University Hospital have issued an emergency alert to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly because “demand is exceeding capacity” resulting in the delay to tests being screened. File picture: Denis Minihane

Up to 6,000 patients are in “a living nightmare” due to a wait of several months for cancer test results because of a major laboratory backlog in the southeast, the Irish Examiner can reveal.

Bosses at Waterford University Hospital have issued an emergency alert to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly because “demand is exceeding capacity” resulting in the delay to tests being screened.

A spokesman for Mr Donnelly said the HSE has established a joint Serious Incident Management Team with SSWHG and IEHG. The HSE will keep the department updated.

“As is standard, the Department has been made aware of a matter involving Regional Histopathology Services in South South-West Hospital Group (SSWHG) and Ireland East Hospital Group (IEHG),” the spokesman said.

Senior medical sources have warned that up to 2,000 patients from St Luke’s Hospital, and thousands more from South Tipperary General Hospital and Waterford University Hospital are being forced to wait “up to six months in some cases” for their results because of a backlog at the laboratory at Waterford.

Delays in cancer diagnosis present considerable risks and both government and opposition TDs have demanded answers from the HSE and Mr Donnelly as to what is being done to deal with the issue.

The South/South West Hospital Group has insisted that the delay is affecting “routine” cases and that all urgent cases continue to be processed, but medics and politicians have queried this claim. Kilkenny Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness said if the tests were not being examined, “how do they know they are not urgent?"

He said the HSE must immediately contact those affected and keep them updated and it shows that the State has failed to learn the critical lessons of past failures.

He told the Irish Examiner:

Will the State ever learn? Following the Vicky Phelan case and others, these type of delays were to be a thing of the past. For all those waiting for test results it must be a living nightmare.

Someone must take responsibility for what has happened otherwise we will never have accountability, he added.

Sinn Féin’s health spokesman and Waterford TD David Cullinane said any delays to cancer testing is “totally unacceptable”. “I have submitted parliamentary questions to find out what is going on here, but it is clear it is a lot of cases, even if they are routine, there is a risk when it comes to cancer,” he said.

Mr Cullinane said he understood that the hospital management had sought additional resources to fund new posts to deal with the backlog but this has not been clarified. He said if the funding has been made available, there can be no delay in filling these posts and ensuring the backlog is cleared.

Independent TD for Tipperary, Michael Lowry, described the situation as horrendous and said many of those affected are very vulnerable.

In a statement to the Irish Examiner, the South/South West Hospital Group said: “There is currently a backlog in relation to routine samples where the demand is exceeding capacity. All urgent samples have been and continue to be processed without delay. Additional sessions are ongoing to address the backlog of routine samples.” 

The pathology services for the southeast area are located at four sites within the region, the vast majority of the service being located in University Hospital Waterford (UHW). The regional service for Histopathology are based in UHW and all samples are sent directly there from the other hospitals and GPs, the group said.

When asked whether the numbers involved totalled 6,000 as suggested, the group refused to comment.

People whose treatment for cancer is delayed by even one month have in many cases a 6% to 13% higher risk of dying — a risk that keeps rising the longer their treatment does not begin — research published in The BMJ found in 2020.

Canadian and UK researchers found there was a significant impact on a person’s mortality if their treatment was delayed, whether that be surgical, systemic therapy (such as chemotherapy), or radiotherapy for seven types of cancer.