You can ask for a review if you get bowel cancer even though you had a colonoscopy with a normal result through the national bowel screening programme - BowelScreen.
A review may help you or your family if you:
- are looking for answers or ways to understand how and when your cancer developed
- want to ask questions about your bowel screening experience
Who can ask for a review
You can only request a review if you have bowel cancer and had a BowelScreen colonoscopy with a 'normal' result or where no cancer was found.
We will not be able to offer you a review if you did not have a BowelScreen colonoscopy.
Only 3 in 100 people who do a BowelScreen home test are referred for a test called a colonoscopy.
How to request a review
Contact us by email or post to ask for a review.
Email: review.request@screeningservice.ie
Client Services,
National Screening Service,
King’s Inns House,
200 Parnell St,
Dublin 1,
DO1 A3Y8
What to expect
After you ask for a review we will contact you to let you know if you are eligible.
It will take 3 to 6 months from the date of your request, to complete the review.
Before your review starts
If you are eligible for a review, we will:
- ask you to confirm your identity - to make sure we protect the privacy of people who use our services
- give you details for your point of contact - this someone you can contact for support at any stage during the review
- ask you for your consent to access your medical records
Medical records
We may need to access your medical records to do the review. Hospitals hold your medical records. These are different to your bowel screening records. We ask for your consent to access them.
If your medical records show a reason why we cannot do a review, we will contact you to tell you why.
How we use your personal information
Introductory meeting
We will meet you before the review starts.
At this meeting we will let you know what to expect from the review process.
You will also have a chance to ask any questions you may have.
Your colonoscopy review
Your colonoscopy review will be done after we meet you.
It will be done by a specialist doctor who works in the BowelScreen unit where you had your colonoscopy.
The specialist might be a colorectal surgeon (a surgeon who specialises in bowel surgery) or a gastroenterologist (doctor who specialises in the digestive system).
They look at the outcome of your colonoscopy.
Your review meeting
We will meet you at the end of the process.
We will invite you to your review meeting where we will:
- bring you through the review of your screening colonoscopy report
- tell you if there was anything we could have done differently
We will send you a copy of your review report within 5 days of your review meeting.