Professor Riste?rd ? Laoide:

We need to get best practice throughout our system and we need centres to learn from each other. In the NCCP, we are working on a network structure of cancer centres in this country. I am very supportive of the Sláintecare regional health area, RHA, delivery because that will allow us to network community care with individual patient care, primary care and our acute services. That is particularly important in the cancer continuum because we go from prevention right through to the most complex treatment. However, the organisation of services involves centralisation for highly complex surgery and for highly complex treatment such as bone marrow transplantation, CAR-T or PRRT, which I mentioned earlier. If we centralise, we need to say that the person in Belmullet has the same access as the person right next to that hospital, wherever it is. To do that properly, we need a network service. To do that well and efficiently, we need an accreditation system to show that we are doing that. We are involved in a European process that is looking at that through the Commission on how best we would accredit a network of cancer service in this country to make sure that the care, as the Senator said, the access to care and the outcomes for patients are the same all over the country.

I refer to infrastructure internationally. There is discussion now, particularly after the pandemic, on having dedicated infrastructure for cancer care. That is one of the difficulties that comes up when our cancer care is depending on emergency department activity and beds and getting access to beds. The system has worked well in this country in the sense that we have managed to overcome that, but the argument is whether we should have dedicated infrastructure, theatres, inpatient beds and diagnostics for cancer care – a dedicated front door to save vulnerable patients from getting respiratory disease, Covid or such. That is another area we are looking at.