Donegal cancer doctor joins colleagues in slamming underfunding of cancer strategy

Transcript

00:00 Yesterday, 21 leading cancer doctors and researchers wrote to the Taoiseach. Among them was one

00:06 from my own county, Lucas Milewski. He's a consultant medical oncologist at Letterkenny

00:14 University Hospital in Donegal. The warnings by this doctor and others cannot be brushed

00:19 aside by government. They warned that cancer screening has not been expanded as planned.

00:24 They warned that targeted waiting times for cancer tests are not being met. And they warned

00:28 that cancer surgeries are frequently delayed due to shortages in staffing, beds and theatre

00:33 space. Yet not a red cent, not a red cent from your government, from any one of your

00:37 ministers who sat round a cabinet table to provide for the development of funding that

00:42 was provided to the National Cancer Strategy in each of the past two years. And what does

00:46 that tell you? It tells you that this government are completely failing people with health

00:51 and particularly those who have cancer. It is an indictment of this government.

00:57 This commitment to implementation of the National Cancer Strategy is evidenced by significant

01:01 investment in recent years. We have seen significant progress on the implementation of the strategy

01:07 with clear evidence-based policy direction from the department and strong implementation

01:11 by the HSE's National Cancer Control Programme. This government has invested an additional

01:17 €40 million into treatment services under the National Cancer Strategy and total cumulative

01:23 additional funding into treatment services under this strategy since 2017 is over €230

01:31 million. This funding has enabled the recruitment of over 670 staff to our National Cancer Services

01:38 since 2017, including an additional 200 nursing staff, 100 consultants, 180 health and social

01:46 care professionals in designated cancer centres. Additionally, €30 million has been invested

01:53 into screening since 2020, including €20 million for the development of the new National

01:58 Cervical Screening Lab, which opened in December 2022. This means that our National Cancer

02:04 Services have been strengthened, that more patients are receiving treatment and that

02:09 waiting times to access treatment are reduced.