Ms Eibhlin Mulroe:

It is crucial that Sláintecare builds a clinical research strategy into future planning. I do not believe it is there. If we are to integrate trial activity in hospitals, it needs to be in that document. I am grateful that Dr. Morrissey has brought that up. The Senator asked if there are any researchers and clinicians at hospital sites who are restricted from doing studies. There is rarely anyone saying that someone cannot run a trial. A contract for a trial could go to the CEO of one hospital and the same contract could go to another, and one hospital will not sign it while the other will. That means that patients in the hospital where the contract is not signed are taken out of the mix for access to clinical trials. There is not continuity for how we approach simple things such as contracts for trials. That needs to go at a very high level within the national cancer control programme, NCCP, and the HSE, and would solve some issues. I imagine some of the researchers the committee has heard from have mentioned that.

The Senator asked if people feel left out. Some 70% of the money that we distribute to hospital sites does not come from the Irish Cancer Society, the Health Research Board or the HSE but from the money that we generate for our own trials. That funds staff at hospital sites. That comes from collaborative groups and from industry that are funding, investigating or initiating the study. Dr. Morrissey is correct that industry should be involved in this conversation. We are a funder and we are not part of the newly-established research group, yet we fund more trials on cancer. I understand the rationale behind it because we are a charity. We have looked at the figures and know exactly how much it costs to run a trial and how much we spend on every one of the 130 trials that we have on our books. It is worth all of us reflecting on that.