Two senior gynaecologists have warned that women’s lives have been put in danger by Health Minister Simon Harris’ decision to offer free smear tests.

One of them — described only as a mid-west gynaecologist — has said the first delayed diagnosis has already landed on his desk from a smear taken in July and only coming back now.

Dr Beatrice Neufeldt, who was director of the Well Woman Clinic in Limerick when the clinic and the city were taking part in a pilot rollout of the cervical smear programme, says delays because of free smears will cost lives.

“The free tests, for women who are not at risk, have clogged the whole system and now it’s taking four months to get results back”.

This is in comparison to a turnaround time of a few weeks, which applied before the minister offered the free smears for all women in May and in comparison to two weeks for tests in the UK.

“By the time an abnormality is detected and a woman goes through all of the +other referrals and tests necessary, that could be the difference between being able to offer treatment which can cure the cancer and treatment which can only help with the symptoms,” she told the Limerick Post.

Dr Neufeldt said offering the free tests to every woman “has had the opposite effect”.

“Instead of protecting women this has put them at real risk. Women were falsely reassured”.

The doctor, who now runs the Personal Medical Clinic in Castletroy, said she sends her patients’ smears to a clinic in Germany and has results back in a matter of days.

“If there is a suspicious smear, I can get it turned around in a day. Four months is ridiculous. This should never have happened,” said Dr Neufeldt.

The cervical smear programme is a fantastic diagnostic tool. It is the only one which can detect abnormalities before any cancer develops but it is far less effective when there are delays of this kind.

Dr Neufeldt said that she has put a number of articles about the smear test on the clinic’s Facebook page for women who have questions.

The delay originally came to light following a Freedom of Information request from thejournal.ie.

In an article it published recently, a mid-west gynaecologist is quoted as having written to Mr Harris, warning him that the free smear offer was dangerous.

In the letter, sent to Mr Harris in October, the senior clinician said there had been a 300% increase in referrals in the mid-west for further examination but with no additional supports or resources being allocated to the relevant unit.

He said in the latter that the “first delayed diagnosis has arisen in our unit from a smear test taken in June 2018 and only now reported”.

There was no response available from either the HSE or the Department of Health at the time of going to press.