Mr. Liam Woods:

I will ask colleagues to address screening in a moment. Regarding the arrangements for our cancer services within the acute environment in the first wave of the pandemic, rapid access clinics remained open but attendance fell significantly. That can be attributed to the numbers of patients coming forward and referrals from GPs. We also displaced urgent surgery into the private system and actually that worked very well. Mr. Rogers can talk more on that, if required, but that worked very well for first three-month period.

The notion that we have adequate capacity to deal with the Covid-19 surge and the demands of cancer and other urgent elective surgery within the system as it is currently configured is a real challenge. Before we came into the pandemic Sláintecare said there is not sufficient capacity, and that becomes a larger issue now. The Deputy will be aware that at the height of the pandemic we had 2,200 beds closed in the acute system. That was a significant shift, partly associated with public intent around coming into the hospital environment, but also with the shift in staff toward ICU and intensive care. From our point of view, it will be very difficult to respond to both the elective and unscheduled care demand with the surge we know is coming this winter. I will ask colleagues to address screening briefly.