Covid-19 has exacerbated gaps in ‘underfunded’ cancer services, says Irish Cancer Society
GPs have aired concerns about accessing hospitals for non-Covid care, including cancer services.
Dedicated theatre time, additional capacity and staff, and urgent funding are needed to address gaps in cancer services that have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Irish Cancer Society has warned.
The cancer charity was commenting in the wake of concerns by family doctors about accessing hospitals for non-Covid care, including cancer services.
Director of Advocacy at the Irish Cancer Society, Rachel Morrogh, said “consistent underfunding” of the national cancer control programme had led to key performance targets being missed before the pandemic struck in March this year.
Under the national cancer strategy 90% of cancer patients should have surgery within a defined timeframe.
A 95% target to see new patients with a suspected cancer at rapid access clinics was also being missed for breast (70%) and lung (87%) clinics.
While urgent care and diagnostics continued despite Covid-19, activity levels were lower than normal throughput and waiting lists are growing.
An internal briefing for incoming Health Minister Stephen Donnelly in June acknowledged that activity levels during Covid-19 were at 70% for medical oncology, 80% for radiation oncology and 50% for cancer surgery.
“Backlogs that have grown while services were paused have been layered on top of existing waiting lists that were evident long before Covid-19,” Ms Morrogh said.
“The challenges that are facing cancer services today are as a result of consistent underfunding and under-resourcing so there needs to be a mix of long-term and short-term solutions,” she added.
Dedicated surgeries for cancer patients could help address growing waiting lists but urgent funding is needed to bridge existing deficits in cancer services, the Society said.
“It’s more physical space, more capacity, more healthcare professionals and more funding that are really going to make a difference. There were big problems before Covid and they are now being exacerbated,” Ms Murrogh said.
“We would urge the minister to urgently commit the necessary funding to the national cancer strategy. It is part of the programme for government and we’d like to see significant investment in it this year,” she said.
Earlier on Monday chair of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) GP committee Denis McCauley expressed concern over access to cancer services on RTÉ radio 1.
Patients were presenting at GP surgeries, he said, but “pinch points” were evident due to the pandemic and non-Covid services were not up to a “safe” level.
“If you’ve cancer it’s really important that you're seen quickly and there is a big issue there. Cervical screening is back but breast screening isn't back and that’s just in the actual screening services,” Dr McCauley told Morning Ireland.
Access to services was also an issue for patients already diagnosed with cancer, Dr McCauley said: “GPs are having great difficulty getting those patients seen at the hospital. We're having reports back of this happening all of the time.”
“Hospital services really are a major concern to general practice. It's taking up a lot of our time and it’s causing very significant worry and morbidity in our population,” he added.
