Irish Examiner View: Missed cervical screen testswill cost lives

Criticising the health service has become a national sport. Some of that criticism is justified, some of it is not.

Should pandemic figures continue their current trajectory, our health service will reach a pinch-point. Health professionals have warned that the service is precariously close to being overwhelmed. 

Under-investment is a primary reason, but there are others. 

That issue will be, apparently, confronted tomorrow, when the €17.4bn budget will be increased by €4bn, pushing it beyond €20bn for the first time. The pandemic will consume most of this increase.

Criticising the health service has become a national sport. Some of that criticism is justified, some of it is not. Some criticisms are provoked by systems failures or inequities. However, some criticism is a consequence of external factors.

That only one in 10 of 110,000 women offered cervical screening checks since July have availed of the opportunity is an example. 

This is an invaluable and safe service that has had an immeasurable impact on many lives. However, it, like so many other valuable initiatives, has fallen foul of Covid-19, as fear of medical settings has set in.

When services resumed, in early July, participation collapsed, even though capacity for screened patients in primary care, laboratory, and secondary care capacities has been secured. 

In this instance, the failure is not the health systems, but rather that 90% who make what will be for some of them one of the most disastrous decisions of their lives. It is dangerous to be so cavalier about any cancer or about any service designed to identify it in a timely manner.