Professor Risteárd Ó Laoide:

To clarify, these figures do not include the surgeries that were performed in the private sector during the Covid period. Surgeries were performed in a number of private hospitals around the country at that time. We have been doing some work with the faculty of pathology in the College of Physicians to analyse the surgical resection figures. That work indicates that the reduction was not as great as we had thought. Between March and June of this year, when one includes the private sector numbers, the reduction is 12.5%. Surgery is now back at 90% to 100% capacity. Obviously it slowed because of pretesting for surgery, prescreening and cocooning but we have clear Covid and non-Covid pathways in the hospitals. At the moment, there are effectively no waiting lists for surgical oncology in most of the centres. Some local deviation takes place because one of the main issues for capacity at the moment is transmission of Covid-19. St. James's Hospital, for example, had a Covid outbreak a number of weeks ago and that seriously diminished its surgical capacity. Similarly, the radiation unit in Cork had a Covid-19 outbreak a couple of weeks ago and again, capacity was dramatically decreased at that time.

What we are trying to do in the national cancer control programme, NCCP, is ensure that there are protected beds, protected theatres and appropriate staffing to continue to provide surgical oncology services.