Dr. Colm Henry:

The trajectory of most of these cases shows that the earlier people present and the earlier they are diagnosed, the easier and less invasive the treatment is and the better the outcome is. What it means for time-critical conditions such as cancer is that people are presenting later and may be what we call upstaged from before. That is a drop-off from the National Cancer Registry Ireland, NCRI, notice of 2020 of about 12% of registered cancers, which is, of course, a concern. Working with the national cancer control programme, we applied and secured additional resources to buttress access to cancer services and to remind people of the importance of coming in if they develop symptoms. Likewise with screening, we had to react to the fall-off in attendance. The screening programme played an exemplary role throughout the pandemic in catching up with breast screening, cervical screening and, of course, retinopathy. It is a huge challenge worldwide.