Ms Rachel Morrogh:

With respect to what is happening elsewhere, everyone agrees it is not the ideal pathway and other countries are doing it better than we are. The NCCP made 26 oncology nurse appointments to try to avoid patients going through emergency departments but, as Ms Power said, we are still hearing that people have to do so. I will refer to the national cancer strategy to underline how important it is. It contains a target to reduce the number of people who go through emergency departments to less than 20% if they are on active treatment. Sadly, that metric or key performance indicator, KPI, expired in 2018, which demonstrates that the national cancer strategy is the blueprint for what we need to do in cancer services. When it is not implemented, sad experiences, such as the Deputy described from his personal situation, continue to happen. We are talking a great deal about statistics today and the high percentages of people who are not receiving the care they need. An oncologist told us recently that statistics are people with the tears wiped away. That is something we often reflect on. When we talk about these percentages, 20%, 40% and so on, they show that high numbers of people are having an inferior experience in the Irish health system.