Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. As a consequence Covid-19 and the need to pare back non-Covid-19 health services in order to keep people out of hospitals where they might pick up the virus, we have seen a very significant increase in waiting lists for colonoscopies and oesophago-gastro-duodenoscopy procedures. It is important to say that when somebody has the frank symptoms of cancer they are, of course, prioritised. As is often the case with cancer, however, sometimes people’s symptoms are not frank and obvious and that can result in delayed diagnosis. Only last week, the HSE published a very detailed plan as to how it is going to restore non-Covid-19 services and do so in a step-wise fashion over the course of the next few months. That is why it is so important that we keep the virus under control and keep driving the numbers down because if we have a fourth wave, that will further impact on other services.

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