Minister for Health James Reilly TD has confirmed the national screening programme will begin before the end of this year. It was initially due to start in January.
Around 40 patients with advanced bowel cancer will take part in the trial. Its aim is to test if curcumin, which is found in the spice turmeric, can enhance chemotherapy’s ability to kill bowel cancer cells.
The test is being developed at Dublin City University and aims to detect if there are antibodies in blood that could indicate the presence of cancer in the bowel.
A new study, published in The Lancet, says that taking two pills of aspirin a day can cut the risk of bowel cancer by almost two thirds for certain patients.
The programme was due to be rolled out nationally in January 2012. However, the National Cancer Screening Service said it has not reached “quality assurance standards” yet.
SIXTY-EIGHT PER cent of patients are unaware that they can officially complain about their hospital stay.
An Irish Society for Quality and Safety in Healthcare survey revealed that although 93 per cent of the patients surveyed were satisfied with the service they received, one in every five wanted to discuss an area of dissatisfaction but a third felt they never had the opportunity to do so.
The aspects of care that patients were most dissatisfied with included emergency department conditions and waiting times and lack of information about hospital routines, tests, medication side effects and after-care.
So today we want to know: Have you ever lodged a complaint about a hospital?