Dr. Peter McKenna:

The Deputy mentioned symptomatic patients, such as patients who are bleeding, and I thank her for mentioning that. We will not reduce deaths from cervical cancer by focusing on cytology alone. We need to have rapid access to symptomatic gynaecological clinics. At the moment there are possibly 28,000 to 30,000 women waiting for gynaecological outpatient appointments. One must bear in mind that whereas 80 to 90 women die of cervical cancer, 80 to 90 women will also die of endometrial cancer and nearly 300 women will die of ovarian cancer. Cervical cancer is not the only cancer that will kill women, although it clearly has been the focus of our attention recently. Therefore, we must have resources to improve access for symptomatic women in gynaecological clinics. Without that, no matter how much resources we have in cytology and colposcopy, there is only so far we can get.