Soaring cancer treatment costs puts strain on health boards

A DRAMATIC increase in cancer drug and treatment costs has sent health boards’ spend on cancer services soaring in the space of three years.

The North Western Health Board (NWHB) recorded the biggest hike, up from less than quarter of a million in 2000 to a projected spend of almost €2 million this year. A spokesperson attributed the increase to a major expansion of oncology services.

The Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA), which buys drugs for the Northern Area, East Coast Area and South Western Health Boards as well as St James, Beaumont, Tallaght and St Vincent’s Hospitals, estimates costs for 2002 at €15 million, up from €10 million in 2000.

A spokesperson for the ERHA said cancer care patients now make up one quarter of all in-patient and day cases in the eastern region, covering Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare.

“People are living longer so they are getting more cancers as they get older. There has also been a dramatic increase in the level of hospital treatments and more people are being re-treated than might have been in the past. Almost half of all cancer treatment in the country was carried out in Dublin hospitals in 1999 with almost 50,000 discharges recorded that year.”

Research by the ERHA Public Health Department showed an 8% drop in the death rate from cancer for men living in the east and a 9.7% drop in female deaths between 1992 and 1999.

In the case of breast cancer, death rates of women under 65 dropped by well over a fifth. In the same period hospitalisation for breast cancer treatment increased by about 45% across the region.

The spokeswoman said they expected cancer patient figures to increase further in line with an aging population.

In the Midland Health Board, the cost of cancer drugs almost tripled in the space of a year, from €450,000 last year, to an estimated spend of €1.2 million this year.

A doubling in the Southern Health Board figure from €930,000 in 2000 to 1.8 million this year was due in part to the appointment of two new oncologists since 2001.

Costs also doubled in the North Eastern Health Board (NEHB), so did patient figures, up from 1,352 in 2000 to 2,685 this year.

A spokeswoman for the NEHB said increased costs were directly related to the increase in numbers treated and also in the increase in the numbers availing of treatment for a second time.