Northern Ireland has announced that several routine screening programmes will be temporarily paused so that staff and resources can be reallocated to tackle the COVID-19 situation. Trusts are in the process of informing the affected patients about the impact of the decision on their individual appointments.
The routine programmes that have been halted include:
- cervical cancer screening,
- breast cancer screening,
- bowel cancer screening,
- abdominal aortic aneurysm screening and surveillance monitoring, and
- diabetic eye screening and surveillance monitoring.
Exceptions to the above are breast screening for high-risk women, diabetic eye screening for pregnant women and smear tests for non-routine cervical screening.
Antenatal and neonatal screening programmes such as antenatal infections screening, newborn bloodspot screening and newborn hearing screening will continue to be offered.
The Health Minister, Robin Swann said: "I know the importance of screening, but this decision will allow reallocation of precious resources to our frontline staff as they undertake the massive task ahead of them. In addition, it must be remembered that many people who attend screening programmes are in a higher-risk category for coronavirus and it is essential that we minimise risk to those people through maintaining social distancing at this time."
Mr Swann has assured that the suspension is temporary and the programmes will be resumed at the earliest possible opportunity.
