Professor Gerry Hanna:

That difference in follow-up that Ms Gaynor alluded to is very apparent to me, even in the context of some of the initiatives that were brought into Northern Ireland in terms of follow-up of cancers such as breast and prostate cancer. For a whole host of reasons we revolutionised. It was called "transforming your care" and "self-directed aftercare", where patients were not in a medically led programme but, rather, a specialist nursing programme. It was access as needed, with appropriate checks in the background happening automatically, but not routine appointments. This was a cost-saving for patients as they did not have to go to hospital but had a better road of access in. Here in the Republic, we have a very medically driven form of follow-up care after cancer. Maybe that does need to be looked at on a larger programmatic level. It has to be led as a State-wide solution. We are not going to do this bit by bit, otherwise we will not get people to buy into it. That is very apparent. There are a lot of benefits to patients but there are also cost savings and capacity freed up for the health service. That is just one example.