Ms Fiona Murphy:

Absolutely. To add to what Dr. Russell said, our turnaround times for the laboratory tests in cervical screening at the moment are up at 99% within the expected three weeks that they have to do their tests. Our referrals to colposcopy and the time that colposcopy takes to see a patient are excellent and 100% of patients who required urgent attention were seen on time in the past month, with over 90% of the people with high-grade abnormalities seen within four weeks. We are content with our pathway there for cervical screening.

The situation is similar for BreastCheck. We monitor our turnaround times for tests and after screening when patients come in for assessment. After assessment, they are then referred on through surgical intervention and we monitor those tightly and are content that they are within our acceptable parameters.

Equally for BowelScreen, we expect anyone referred on for colonoscopy, if they have a positive faecal immunochemical test, FIT, to be seen within 30 days. We are well over our targets for that. The pathway is very good. Our concern remains that the capacity in the entire pathway is still limited by our need to protect against Covid-19. That will remain a concern for a period of time. For those patients who are assessed and moved along that pathway, the response times are very good.