WE MUST NEVER AGAIN HAVE A ZERO BUDGET TO FIGHT CANCER
EVERY three minutes, someone in Ireland is told ‘you’ve got cancer’. Every three minutes, a friend, neighbour, sibling, parent, or child hears these words.
Every three minutes, someone deals with the fear and uncertainty a cancer diagnosis brings – not to mention the physical, emotional and financial burden it imposes.
With cancer rates increasing all the time, one in every two of us is now expected to get the disease at some point in our lives.
When we do, we deserve the best possible chance of surviving it. Sadly, Irish people are not being given that chance at present.
While the number of people surviving cancer in Ireland is much higher than it was 20 years ago, the survival rate is still lower here than in other European countries.
Why is this? It’s because the Government is not properly funding its own plan for cancer services.
Yes, we have a National Cancer Strategy.
It was launched by our new Taoiseach, Simon Harris, in 2017, back when he was the Minister for Health.
It’s an ambitious but realistic plan that ticks all the boxes in relation to cancer prevention, detection, treatment and survivor supports.
But it has been properly funded in only two of the past seven years since its launch.
Earlier this week, the National Cancer Control Programme team, who lead national cancer planning for the HSE, told the Oireachtas Health Committee they requested an extra €20million in development funding for this year. And how much did the Government provide in the Budget? Nothing. Not a penny.
This is an insult to anyone languishing on a waiting list for a cancer test or treatment, and getting more worried by the day.
It’s an insult to the healthcare professional trying to do their best in a chaotic system, knowing their patients are not getting the standard of care they deserve. And it’s shortsighted financial policy.
Cancer costs lives. But it also costs money. The earlier it’s caught, the lower the cost.
For instance, a melanoma diagnosed early, at Stage 1A, will cost the State €4,269 to treat. At Stage 4, treatment will cost €122,985.
This week, the Government has come out on the defensive and said that things aren’t so bad. Some Government spokespeople have used data from 2018 – before the pandemic, and while the ink was barely dry on the National Cancer Strategy – to say that things are on track. But this isn’t the case.
The reality is that targets are not being met.
Screening has not been expanded as planned. Expected waiting times for cancer tests are consistently exceeded.
Cancer surgeries are frequently delayed due to understaffing and a shortage of beds and theatre space.
We also have the secondslowest access to new medicines in western Europe. Lives are being needlessly lost. So what’s needed? Sadly, what’s lacking here is a political commitment to ringfenced, multi-year funding for
‘The reality is that treatment targets are not being met’
the National Cancer Strategy.
Adequate and stable funding is the only way the National Cancer Control Programme team can deliver the improvements set out in the plan.
I hope our new Taoiseach feels some ownership of the cancer strategy he launched back in 2017.
I hope he takes it back off the shelf and reverses the Government’s decision to provide no funding whatsoever for it in 2024.
And I hope all parties ensure that we never again have a zero budget for cancer improvements.
Only then will Irish people get the cancer services and survival rates we deserve.