Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

The Government is of course, as is everybody else, committed to improving cancer care, ensuring better prevention, maintaining improvements in cancer survival rates, and timely access to treatments. The national cancer control programme, NCCP, has a number of metrics for breast cancer services. They are consistently reviewed to guide service advancements and to make improvements.

Since 2017 the total number of patients annually receiving this type of surgery increased by 10% to well over 1,500 in 2023. Over this period the percentage of patients seen within the recommended 20 days has decreased from 84% to 60%. The time to surgery can be influenced by a number of factors, including imaging and inpatient capacity, as well as the individual circumstances of the patient. The HSE is working on several initiatives to improve surgical capacity, including consideration of imaging and inpatient capacity in several cancer centres. Waiting times for radiology and diagnostic services are very seriously recognised as an issue.

The NCCP has produced a range of guidelines aimed at ensuring standardised access to cancer services across the country. These will, I hope, reduce variation in the management of patients and will lead to more appropriate referrals and management of patients within cancer services.

The Deputy will already be aware of the scale of the investment into the national cancer strategy since 2017. Significant improvements have been made with regard to breast cancer in recent years, in line with the overall objectives of the national cancer strategy. We do need to see a good deal more, as the Deputy will be aware.

See this speech in context