Neil Guckian says Western Trust ‘best in NI’ breast cancer performance achieved despite 11.4% hike in red flag referrals

Neil Guckian says Western Trust ‘best in NI’ breast cancer performance achieved despite 11.4% hike in red flag referrals

Transcript

00:00we're accepting that patients from elsewhere in Northern Ireland to make

00:04sure we minimize the total weight for Northern Ireland patients. So I want to

00:08just pay tribute to my clinical team for that regard. But we also have to

00:11look at the context. Red flag referrals for breast have gone up

00:16by 11.4% in my trust. So you can't just look at the

00:22weight, you have to look at the totality of the demand. And if resources and the

00:26actual ability to address that hasn't been tackled, well then there will be a

00:30slip into the future. If that 11% continues, well then clearly there's only a

00:34limited amount of service that you can deliver with a clinical team without

00:38increasing that team. Likewise, imaging is under intense pressure. 10% increase in

00:42MRIs, 10% increase per annum every year in CT scanning. That hasn't been

00:48resourced at all. So what happens? Something has to give. So our clinical

00:52teams, day and daily, are trying to prioritize their patients. You're

00:55absolutely right. Breast patients, patients with suspect breast cancer, need

01:00to be a priority. But which patient gives? That's the question that our

01:05clinical teams have to ask themselves every day. And I must admit I

01:10tick my hat off to them. They make that call really well, certainly in

01:13the West.