Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In response to Professor Landers's point, for anyone watching this morning, the lack of joined-up thinking comes across very strongly. In some areas, we have the equipment but we do not have the staff. We heard Dr. Kilgallen talk about having surgeons who only get a half day of surgery a week and the danger of people deskilling or leaving the health service.

From a personal position, I have had cancer twice. The positive message is there is life with cancer and life after it. That is the positive message people need to hear. When you are told you have cancer, it is not a pleasant or nice thing but, in many cases, it is not a death sentence.

How are people being told at the moment that they have cancer? The opening statement referenced the fact no one is there to your hand after treatment and so on. The big positive for me on the day I was told was my wife was with me when we heard that information. I am concerned that I have had a number of phone calls as part of my treatments since the Covid pandemic. I would be concerned if people were getting that information over the phone. Can anyone inform us, more so for people listening at home, how that information is told? Can someone give us an answer on that?