Ms Averil Power:

I am sorry to hear the Deputy had that experience. It is horrific. It is awful going through cancer at all, but having to go through an emergency department is crazy, especially at the moment. It simply adds to the distress.

Best practice is that cancer would have a separate pathway and a patient would not go through the emergency department at all. People would not have to go to an emergency department to be triaged and seen by someone from the cancer services. There would be a separate pathway for that care.

The national cancer control programme, NCCP, has stated that acute oncology services are ensuring patients can be assessed without attending an emergency department but we often hear from patients who have to go to emergency departments to access care. It would be good to raise that issue with representatives from the NCCP when they are before the committee. Healthcare professionals tell us that, especially at weekends and overnight, going through emergency departments is the only way that patients, including those with a terminal diagnosis, can get into the system. It is intolerable. It is not the practice internationally where there are proper separate cancer pathways.