Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Like the rest of the Sinn Féin speakers, I thank the Social Democrats for bringing forward this important motion. Diagnosis of cancer is devastating for an individual and his or her family. It is a shock to the system. It is unacceptable that in the midst of this upset, fear, anger and sickness, the HSE is sending debt collectors' letters to people. The HSE has spent over €4 million on these debt collecting agencies for cancer patients since 2013. That is a shameful indictment of the treatment of cancer patients in this State.

We often look to America and its healthcare system. Obviously, our system is better in caring than that but for these cancer patients, it is not. That these patients receive debt collection agencies' letters while in the midst of chemotherapy is unacceptable. The HSE gives people 37 days before the debt collectors contact them. That means they have less than six weeks from admission to hospital before these debt collecting agencies knock on their doors.

For some people, €800 is not small money. There are so many hidden costs to a cancer diagnosis. There is time off work for the patient and family members, the costs of transport, medicine and, for some people, wigs because of the effects of chemotherapy. For some people, a bill of €800 arriving to the door is not affordable and it is like a dagger, on top of everything else when they are struggling and at their most vulnerable, to have debt collection agencies at their door. It undermines these individuals that, on top of this terrible illness, they and their families have this cost. There is a human side to this. This practice is wrong and it must stop.

I raise the delay in care in cancer treatments during Covid-19. A neighbour and friend of mine's wife contacted me last week to say her husband was sick last August and September and had to wait two months for a scan, which revealed a tumour in his brain requiring an emergency operation. Up to the weekend, the couple were waiting for contact for the operation to be done. It is a tumour on the brain. There was a delay because of Covid-19 for access to scanning and another delay for access to emergency surgery.

The Opposition has highlighted since the start of the pandemic the importance of cancer patients and other seriously ill people not falling through the cracks because of Covid. My thoughts and prayers go out to this man, Tom, and his family for what they are going through. Coupled with this weight on the family, families receive bills and have debt collectors chasing them down.

The requirement to pay car parking charges when going into hospital for chemotherapy, surgery or clinics has to change. That has to stop.

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