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The HSE is continually missing its targets to get 90 per cent of cancer patients into treatment within 15 days, new figures have revealed.
The latest figures from the HSE, released to Aontú’s Peadar Tóibín under a Freedom of Information Request that just 58.3% of cancer patients at St Luke’s Hospital started radiotherapy within 15 working days of being deemed suitable for treatment.
This fell to 55.5% over the last 12 months at the hospital, with the worst month being recorded last September where just 44.9% of patients were seen within 15 working days.
“Aontú has found out that under Stephen Donnelly, the HSE is continually missing its targets to get 90% of cancer patients into treatment within 15 days,” Mr Tóibín said, adding: “Delayed treatment leads to poorer outcomes.”
In other areas, outcomes also fell short of the targets set by the HSE. In Cork University Hospital, 79.7 per cent of cancer patients received treatment within 15 working days, whilst this figure was higher in Galway University Hospital, where 82.9 per cent of patients started their treatment on time.
In a letter to Mr Tóibín, National Cancer Control Programme assistant national director Fiona Bonas wrote: “The recommended target is 90% for operational compliance as approximately 10% of patients can be expected to have more complex needs that confound or delay treatment.”
She explained a number of reasons targets were not being met – including if patients had chosen to defer treatment or if there was a significant backlog of patients waiting for treatment. A number of mitigation measures to shorten waiting times were also listed – including the possibility of outsourcing selected patients to private radiotherapy facilities.
Mr Tóibín described the figures “worrying”, and said he was alarmed by the missing of targets on a widespread scale.
“We need to ensure that when a person is diagnosed with cancer and is deemed fit for treatment that there is absolutely no delay on the part of the health service. When a person has cancer it is often a race against time.”
Irish Cancer Society CEO Averil Power described the latest figures as “extremely worrying.”
“We’ve highlighted time and time again that one in three cancer patients didn’t start radiotherapy on time last year,” Ms Power said.
“The latest figures are extremely worrying, particularly since we appear to be slipping backwards. For instance, four in five people started radiation therapy on time in 2018.”
“This simply isn’t good enough; cancer patients in Ireland deserve world-class, timely treatment and they’re not getting that right now.”
It comes as a Dáil debate in October heard that many nursing posts in cancer, palliative, paediatric, and rehab care are being left vacant, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.
A recent survey of 4,000 members of Fórsa’s Health and Welfare Division showed 88 per cent of respondents said there was a vacancy in their department, and 73 per cent said it had a very negative impact on staff;
Meanwhile, SIPTU has highlighted that 30 per cent more radiation therapists are needed, and that the staffing crisis is causing delays in cancer treatment.
The debate heard that staff deficits were also impacting the national ambulance service, radiography, support services, the healthcare support assistant workforce and across other critical areas. The INMO has said that posts are being left vacant in cancer, palliative, paediatric and rehab care – with some posts now taking up to a year to fill.
Limerick TD Willie O’Dea told the House last month that he had been approached by families of people who had faced lengthy delays to cancer treatment.
“There is a very serious staffing crisis in the oncology department of University Hospital Limerick as a result of it having lost 30 nurses, who have not been replaced despite the fact the embargo is not supposed to be operable at UHL anymore,” the Fianna Fáil TD said.
“The consequences of this are very serious. It means gravely ill patients have to wait for unconscionable periods of time for essential treatments such as chemotherapy. I have been approached by families of people who have been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer who have not managed to get chemotherapy yet after six weeks’ delay. Sometimes when people get to the end of the waiting period, the date is postponed again.
“The same thing applies to people who are waiting for scans to ascertain whether their cancer is in remission. I appreciate the huge investment this Government has made in University Hospital Limerick, but this is a very serious crisis affecting some very vulnerable people.”
The Oireachtas Health Committee recently heard that despite a 50% increase in health funding since 2019, waiting lists have remained static. Across the State, figures show there are some 840,000 patients on active hospital waiting lists, plus 240,000 on community waiting lists.
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