A lack of qualified personnel to examine cervical smear tests is resulting in waiting times for results of up to four months in some parts of the State. The delays may jeopardise the introduction of a national cervical screening programme promised since 1996, the chairwoman of a Department of Health task force has warned.
Ms Marian O'Reilly, who is also project leader of the Mid-Western Health Board's pilot screening programme, said that until the capacity issue at the State's 14 cytology laboratories was solved, the introduction of a national screening programme "would be very difficult".
Currently all the labs in the State are groaning under the workload pressure, according to Ms Mary Leader, professor of pathology at the Royal College of Surgeons. Ms Leader is also director of the RCSI cytology laboratory at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin. One of the busiest cytology labs in the State, its workload has increased by 40 per cent since last year.
