A local nurse is worried that local people with bowel cancer are waiting too long for a colonoscopy.
Josephine Kelly is a night nurse with the Cancer Association of Ireland.
She says there are many patients with suspected bowel cancer who urgently require testing, but have been delayed due to the Covid crisis.
Josephine says it’s imperative that these people are treated, and that early detection is possible: “At the moment there are 2,700 people in Ireland waiting for urgent colonoscopies, which is a camera test for bowel cancer. That’s not just screening. These people have symptoms. They could be under pressure now – please God it won’t be anything, but they need to have those tests. And that’s no good. There are 18,000 people apparently waiting for colonoscopies and 2,700 of those are urgent.”
