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Tánaiste Simon Coveney apologized to thousands of women who have been waiting 18 weeks for smear test results.
This comes as the HSE has confirmed a backlog of more than 60,000 smear tests following a resurgence of tests following the CervicalCheck crisis.
There has been a dramatic increase in the number of women seeking screening since the CervicalCheck crisis erupted earlier this year.
Mr. Coveney was responding to Louise O'Reilly, spokesperson for Sinn Féin Health, at the Leaders & Issues meeting this afternoon.
She said that after the CervicalCheck, women had been offered a new free smear test, but that "what we did not expect was that nothing would be done".
She stated that general practitioners had not been consulted and that no strategy or planning had been taken into account in the announcement.
Mrs. O'Reilly said that a "good idea" had been "completely mismanaged" and that the measure supposed to reassure women had not worked.
She explained that the expected results of the women were expected within six weeks, but that they had to wait until 18 weeks, because the labs can not process the backlog and the tests are about to expire .
Ms. O'Reilly asked what was being done to solve the problem and whether it was possible to give women a realistic schedule for repeat testing.
Mr. Coveney said that repeat testing was one of the key issues raised during the hotline in May and the HSE regrets the significant delays in communicating test results.
He said: "Unfortunately, the results are currently being reported within 18 weeks of testing.
"In a small number of cases, it is even longer than that, it is not enough and I would like to apologize to the patients concerned and assure them that everything is done to improve the situation. "
He added: "These delays were caused by an increase in the number of women presenting for smear tests."
He said two factors contributed to the increase in demand.
In addition to women presenting for out-of-cycle smears, there was also a dramatic increase in the number of out-of-cycle tests and CervicalCheck found an increase in the normal test system.
In May, the government announced that it would fund additional tests for anyone concerned about previous smear tests.
Figures published in RTÉ's Morning Ireland show that treatment time has more than tripled and some women wait 18 weeks to receive their results.
The HSE apologized for the delays and confirmed that between May and September of this year 42,469 smear tests were performed.
More than 86,210 smear specimens are still in progress and have not yet been reported, compared to approximately 23,000 smear samples that would normally be in process at any one time.
"We wish to apologize to the patients concerned and assure them that everything is being done to improve the situation," said the HSE.
Ann Kelly, 42, of Dunmanway, in Cork County, told the program that she had waited 17 weeks to get the results of her smear, which was inconclusive and required another test .
The mother of four now faces an important additional wait for the new test to be read.
"I called the general practitioners every two weeks to see if there were any updates, they did not know either, the weeks were just going to get longer," he said. she said.
Ms. Kelly said that a member of CervicalCheck's staff had told her that it was unfortunate that the tests were done again during the summer, while the staff was on vacation.
"Seventeen weeks of waiting and 17 additional weeks, eight months waiting for a simple smear result." I think they really need a reshuffle here, something must be done soon. "
In a statement, the HSE said it had asked screening labs to hire additional staff and manage annual leave in order to address the backlog.
"As part of our ongoing negotiations with laboratories, we are trying to find additional filtering capacity in the laboratory network, which would help improve turnaround time." We hope to be able to announce additional capacity in the labs. next weeks."
He also confirmed that colposcopy clinics, which receive recommendations for abnormalities, are also experiencing an increase in demand.
Health Spokesperson Alan Kelly said that delays in the treatment of smears were problematic.
"Women who need screening – women who are referred for screening or in fact, it was their time slot for screening – are all affected.
He said that Health Minister Simon Harris had made the announcement for the right reasons but "in a little panic".
Mr Kelly said that "it was probably the wrong thing to do to deploy free tests universally free".
Dr. Mary Short, director of women's health at the Irish College of General Practitioners, said the delays were frustrating, but patients should not be overly worried.
"The smear is not a diagnostic test, it is only a question of looking for precancerous cells that can be treated in a colposcopy clinic.The delay between precancerous cells and cancer may be greater than 20 years. .
"I do not think the delay should cause unjustified concern, it's just frustrating."
Earlier this summer, a number of smear tests could not be read due to delayed treatment.
Samples should be transferred from a cervical pot to a microscopic slide within six weeks. However, in some cases, this deadline has not been respected.
Dr. Short believes that the risk of tests becoming obsolete has decreased as the department becomes more familiar with the volume of tests.
"All transport medium samples are now" plated ", in case of delay in treatment."
Additional report: Louise Byrne
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