Health system of UK was in the news recently because of the unwillingness to provide Herceptin to deserving breast cancer patients. Now it is once again coming to spotlight because of delay in providing genetic test to deserving patients who may have inherited the breast cancer gene.

According to reports women are suffering significant delays, amounting to two years or more to see if they carry a gene that increases the risk of breast cancer. A number of women are getting prophylactic mastectomies just to deal with the uncertainties associated with long delay of getting breast cancer gene tests. This means that a number of women who may not actually need mastectomy may be undergoing breast removal surgeries because of the delay in providing the test.

Those who can afford for this expensive gene test pay from pocket, without waiting for the long delay. The test costs around $2500 in the United States, and could be more expensive in UK. Those who cannot afford to pay for the test have the option of waiting for two years or more or undergoing mastectomy without waiting for the test results. None of these two options are acceptable in the civilized world. In some cases women who had gene test done in the year 2002 is still waiting for the results.

Government says laboratories were "making excellent progress" towards meeting the goal (yes very obviously!).

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