Backlog for cancer screening must be tackled
DEPUTY John Brady has called on the government to tackle the growing backlog of cancer screening and treatment services.
He is calling on the government to make cancer care a priority by providing increased funding to enable cancer screening to operate at full capacity in a Covid environment as healthcare services head into the most challenging winter season in the history of the state.
‘We know that early diagnosis and intervention saves lives. With all of the missed screenings, the delay in procedures being carried out, coupled with being in a high risk category, Covid-19 has hit cancer patients hard,’ said Mr Brady.
‘Sinn Féin is calling on the government to now make cancer care a priority by providing increased funding to enable screening to operate at full capacity in a Covid environment, and to address the under-investment in care that has resulted in crucial targets being missed under the National Cancer Strategy.’
He said that even before the onset of the pandemic Ireland had the third highest rate of cancer in the world, with more than 43,000 diagnoses a year.
‘ The importance of catching cancer early is indisputable, but we are now falling dangerously behind in our cancer screening programme,’ he said. ‘Failure to address this with immediate effect will inevitably cost lives, as well as overloading a healthcare service that is already facing the most challenging winter season in the history of the state.’