Lack of capacity leaves cancer treatment system 'creaking at the seams'

Difficulty in getting timely access to consultant appointments, scans and testing equipment to monitor cancer treatment response, regression, or progression is a key barrier that many patients now face. File Picture: PA

A lack of capacity and a lack of consultants in oncology departments of Irish hospitals are leaving many cancer patients waiting months to see specialists.

That’s according to the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA), who say that the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the issue.

Difficulty in getting timely access to consultant appointments, scans and testing equipment to monitor cancer treatment response, regression, or progression is a key barrier that many patients now face.

Consultant Oncologist at St Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin, Professor John Crown says that Ireland’s health system was already “creaking at the seams," but is now “at risk of being in real trouble.” 

The IHCA is now calling on the health service and Health Minister Stephen Donnelly to expedite the recruitment of 73 additional consultant oncologists over the next eight years to tackle to current cancer-treatment-waiting lists, and to meet future demand.

As a result of the reduction in non-Covid-19 care, almost 150,000 fewer people were seen by main cancer screening services in the first six months of this year, according to recent figures.

248,223 patients were screened by BowelScreen, CervicalCheck, and BreastCheck services from January to June of last year. The total screened during the same period this year was just 99,286.

A further 12,400 people were waiting for an inpatient/day case GI endoscopy at the end of September compared with the same month last year - an increase of 56%. 

2,400 people are currently said to be on the waiting list for ‘urgent’ endoscopy services, 580 of whom have been waiting over three months for a referral.

The IHCA says that, under best practice, any patient requiring urgent colonoscopy procedures should be seen within 28 days, given the risk that these patients may go on to develop cancer.

Professor James Crown, Consultant Oncologist at St Vincent's University Hospital Dublin says Ireland's healthcare system is “at risk of being in real trouble.”  Picture: IHCA

With escalating waiting lists and a need for more consultants across Ireland’s cancer services, the health system’s ability to recover after reopening services following Covid-19 closures is being significantly hampered, the IHCA says. 

“There are specific problems in Ireland which are greater in magnitude than in other countries, which revolve around the core area which affects the health system in general which is the issue of capacity," said Professor Crown.

There is a lot of apprehension as to what it will be like to be a patient or a healthcare worker in the hospital system in Ireland over the next six months.

Professor Crown said the waiting list times in Ireland, which were an issue before the Covid-19, were now "tremendous."

He said: "I saw a lady recently who had a pain problem and getting an appointment to see a pain specialist has a waiting time of three and a half years, and this is considered remotely normal.

“The last thing patients need to hear is that we’d like to get you this scan, but we can’t do it for a month.

"There's a phrase that they use in the civil rights movement that ‘justice delayed is justice denied.'

"I would say the same thing applies when it comes to healthcare - treatment delayed is treatment denied,” he added.