Postcode lottery: Delays in cancer treatment for patients in the West
By Erin Gahan
Galway hospitals are falling well behind target in starting cancer treatment, and with an eight year wait for vital cancer scanners at University Hospital Galway, cancer care in the West is in trouble.
Cancer patients in Galway are being forced to travel long distances or referred to private hospitals at great cost to the state due to the lack of a PET scanner at UHG and surrounding hospitals, as well as the outdated equipment hospitals in the West have been left with.
Galway East TD Louis O’Hara recently brought the issue to Dáil Éireann, where he asked Tánaiste Simon Harris to expedite the delivery of PET and CT scanners to UHG who are facing another eight years with no PET scanner and a faulty 17-year-old CT scanner.
3 new CT scanners and a PET scanner are expected to be installed at the hospital by 2033, a timeframe Deputy O’Hara called unacceptable.
He said, “This means that the status quo will continue for a number of years, where cancer patients cannot access critical medical imaging in UHG. And this is simply not good enough.”
The Tánaiste has since pledged to look further into the matter.
The postcode lottery in effect in Galway hospitals
UHG have also seen the number of cancer patients double in the past eight years, from 13,000 in 2016 to 26,000 in 2024. This increase is especially worrying when faced with an eight year wait for essential diagnostic equipment.
Dr Michael McCarthy, President of the Irish Society of Medical Oncology (ISMO) and Consultant Medical Oncologist at University Hospital Galway told The Journal Investigates that, “Demand on our day wards is rising predictably year-on-year. We know that next year there’ll probably be about a 10% increase again, and it’s likely that rate of increase will continue for the next five to ten years.”
The delay seen in chemotherapy delivery at UHG is a significant problem, with patients waiting seven to eight weeks for their first appointment.
Dr McCarthy said, “Working in the West of Ireland, I see the human cost of the postcode lottery in Irish cancer care every day.
“Once chemotherapy is prescribed, the National Cancer Strategy states that it should start within fifteen working days. The reality in Galway is that patients are now typically waiting seven to eight weeks for their first session.
“With every week that passes, the risk increases that their cancer will grow, or worse that it will spread to other parts of their body.”
Figures compiled by TheJournal.ie earlier this year show a steady decline in starting cancer treatment targets in Galway’s public hospitals.
Generally, hospitals have a target to start treating 90% of patients for medications like chemotherapy and immunotherapy within 15 working days.
The number of patients who began treatment during that timeframe in Galway hospitals fell from 91% in 2023 to 76% in 2024, and by spring this year had fallen again to 73%.
On these figures, Dr McCarthy said the “only reason” the figures in Galway have reached the 70s is because of the nurses and pharmacists in the hospitals who go above and beyond to screen patients before appointments become available and offer cancelled appointments to patients on a waiting list.
At Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe the figures remained below the intended 90% but are moving in the right direction, increasing year on year from 53% in 2023 to 74% in 2024, and this year to rising 75%.
Dr McCarthy continued, “We simply don’t have enough staff, space, or equipment to cope and patients are paying the price. Many of my colleagues in other hospitals across the country face similar challenges.”
The national picture
Delays in vital cancer treatments isn’t only seen in Galway, but in public hospitals across the country.
Just under 200,000 people were waiting for more than 3 months for diagnostic scans at the end of March this year.
The Irish Cancer Society has warned that these delays cause deaths which could be avoided given a timely diagnosis. A serious cause of concern made even worse with cancer diagnoses in Ireland expected to double by 2045.
In the last two years, all but one of the public hospitals in Ireland offering these lifesaving services missed the HSE’s monthly target at least once.
Letterkenny University Hospital hasn’t met the 90% target once during the two-year period TheJournal.ie investigated.
Their findings showed that just 12% of cancer patients in LetterKenny were treated within the target period of 15 working days in all of 2024.
This figure has since risen to 82% as of April this year, after significant efforts were made according to the National Cancer Control Programme.
