Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests. Two months ago, on 1 April, the HSE took over all of our private hospitals in a bid to be prepared for a surge of Covid patients, as had happened in Italy, Spain and other countries throughout the world. While it was very important to put these contingency plans in place, thankfully they were not needed. As a result of the two-month shutdown of normal services, the HSE is now trying to cope with the thousands of patients on waiting lists whose appointments were cancelled due to Covid. The deal between the HSE and the private hospitals will not end until the end of June, by which time the waiting lists will have become longer. One Galway oncologist recently stated he had 60 cancer patients on a waiting list and 3,000 active cancer patients on his room list.

These, he said, were patients he had treated in the past who may be having a relapse during the shutdown period. This three-month delay has affected cancer patients, orthopaedic surgery and all routine elective inpatient day-case and outpatient procedures which were halted on 1 April to free up space for the feared spike in Covid patients. We are all well aware that delays in biopsies, early access and treatment are likely to have consequences for patients. This could mean loss of life. It is a serious issue for all cancer patients, be they public or private. All cervical screening has been paused in the past two months. Now we have a significant backlog which will not be cleared for months, maybe even years.

Why could laboratories not have processed these smear tests in tandem with the Covid testing, thus minimising the risk to women's lives through early detection?