Almost 150,000 less people have been seen by cancer screening services in the first six months of this year, according to the The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA).
This is mainly down to the reduction of non-Covid 19 care during the first wave of the pandemic.
According to the IHCA, 12,400 more people are now waiting for an inpatient or day case Gastrointestinal tract (GI) endoscopy since last year.
There are also over 2,400 people on the urgent cancer waiting list for endoscopy services, almost a quarter (24 per cent or 580 people) of whom have been waiting more than 3 months for a referral.
The IHCA says urgent recruitment of 73 additional consultant oncologists is needed over the next eight years needed to tackle current acute hospital and cancer services waiting lists and future demand.
St Vincent’s Oncologist, professor John Crown said “There is a lot of apprehension as to what it will be like to be a patient or a healthcare worker in the hospital system in Ireland over the next 6 months.
"Cancer care is complex and that Ireland’s health system is already creaking at the seams and is at risk of being in real trouble.”
Treatment delay
According to Professor Crown “The last thing patients need to hear is that we’d like to get you this scan, but we can’t do it for a month treatment delayed is treatment denied."
Meanwhile, the IHCA says new data released on national screening programmes shows that across BowelScreen, CervicalCheck and BreastCheck, some 248,223 people were screened between January and June 2019.
That is compared with 99,286 people seen in the first six months of 2020 as a result of the reduction in non-Covid-19 care during the first wave of the pandemic.
They also said this is exasperated by Ireland having just around half the number of Specialists in Medical Oncology compared with Australia.
This shortage, consultants say, is being compounded by an ongoing pay disparity implemented in 2012, which has led to hundreds of consultants looking outside the Irish public system to find opportunities abroad or in the private sector.
They said as those who require an urgent colonoscopy should be seen within 28 days under best practice, there is a risk many of these patients may go on to develop cancer.
The organisaton is now calling on the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, and health service management to immediately fill the 500 vacant permanent hospital consultant posts and fast track the opening of thousands of beds needed across the full scope of the public health service.
