John Crown (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Figures reported in the press in recent days from a reputable medical report on different cancer rates of survival across the OECD nations make for very sobering reading for people in Ireland. I will not go into all the details; suffice it to say the statistics indicate we are doing very poorly. In the case of some cancers, we are doing nearly as poorly as any nation in the OECD can do. In the case of one cancer, we are beaten only by a country that is relatively newly liberated from Soviet communism. There has been a slight tendency here, administratively and bureaucratically, in the past decade to indulge in self-congratulation of a near-orgiastic level over alleged improvements in cancer services. It is important for people to realise that most or much of what has happened has involved reorganisation, shuffling and changing bureaucracies. There has been an increase in the number of cancer specialists, which I welcome, and there have been improvements, which I also welcome. There have been improvements all across the world, including Europe and the western countries that have relatively developed medical systems. This is because cancer treatment has got better.

The second most important point to note is how poorly our near neighbour, the United Kingdom, has done in similar league tables, recently presented in the same study. The UK model is the one to which we seem to aspire most. If one wants to improve cancer treatment outcomes, there should be enough people doing the treating, enough access to treatment and good access to the drugs available. Historically, we were poor in the first two categories and good in the third, but now we are becoming poor in all three. This is really a time for honest reflection.