Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 June 2020
385. Deputy Emer Higgins asked the Minister for Health his plans to eliminate the wait for cancer patients as a result of the reorientation of the public and private health services during the Covid-19 crisis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12748/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe National Action Plan on Covid-19 identified the continued delivery of urgent cancer care as a priority through ensuring the delivery of national specialities and maintaining urgent activity (including Rapid Access Clinics). Cancer services continued following the consideration of the risk:benefit ratio of treatment of individual patients, the prioritisation of time-sensitive treatment and the ongoing review of the location of the delivery of cancer services across all cancer clinical programmes:
- Medical oncology services continue with the relocation of day wards where necessary. Physical distancing requirements will challenge the return of patients to pre-Covid numbers;
- Radiation oncology services continue with provisions made for physical distancing and intensified cleaning regimes for the linac machines;
- Maintaining urgent surgical oncology services is a priority with many services relocating to private hospitals. Less urgent surgery was deferred at the outset and this is beginning to be addressed now:
- Rapid Access Clinics for breast, lung and prostate cancers continue. E-referrals to these clinics, compared to the pre-Covid months, are back to normal for breast patients (largest numbers attend breast clinics), but are still lower for lung (in particular) and prostate;
- Symptomatic services for other cancers also continue to operate, in line with NCCP guidance documents for treating patients during the Covid-19 pandemic. Patients are being triaged in advance of their appointments, and virtual/telephone clinics are in operation where possible.
Cancer services across all clinical programmes are currently seeking to return to activity levels to meet the increasing service demand. This will include the diagnosis and treatment of patients triaged as non-urgent who may not have presented, or who had their treatment delayed or deferred, during the Covid-period. The HSE's National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP) advises that it will be a challenge to get the numbers back to where they were while implementing physical distancing and associated precautionary measures. The challenges arising will be exacerbated by the number of patients who would normally have presented earlier coming forward in the next few months, on top of the increasing numbers arising more generally in line with an increasing and an ageing population.
My Department is continuing to engage closely with the NCCP and others in regard to cancer services and work is underway to establish the requirements to sustainably provide for the demand. The focus is on facilitating cancer services to return to pre-COVID levels, as far as possible, and on how this can be done in a safe and effective way. Planning will include for any revised arrangements with private hospitals.
