Missed cancer treatment targets 'extremely worrying', says Irish Cancer Society

This falls to 55.5% over the last 12 months at the hospital, with the worst month being recorded last September where just 44.9% of patients were seen within 15 working days.

The figures, provided to Aontú’s Peadar Tóibín, show that so far this year, 79.7% of cancer patients receiving treatment in Cork University Hospital received it within 15 working days. This was higher again in Galway University Hospital, where 82.9% of patients began treatment on time.

Both are short of the 90% target set by the HSE.

In a letter to Mr Tóibín, National Cancer Control Programme assistant national director Fiona Bonas said: "The recommended target is 90% for operational compliance as approximately 10% of patients can be expected to have more complex needs that confound or delay treatment."

Ms Bonas says that there are a number of reasons why these targets are not being met, including if patients choose to defer treatment or if there is a large backlog of patients awaiting treatment.

The letter also set out a number of mitigation measures to improve waiting times, including outsourcing selected patients to private radiotherapy facilities.

Irish Cancer Society CEO Averil Power said that they were concerned about ongoing delays within the cancer treatment system.

“We’ve highlighted time and time again that one in three cancer patients didn’t start radiotherapy on time last year,” Ms Power said.

The latest figures are extremely worrying, particularly since we appear to be slipping backwards. For instance, four in five people started radiation therapy on time in 2018.

Ms Power said that waiting for treatment brings “additional and unnecessary stress to patients and their families”.

“This simply isn’t good enough; cancer patients in Ireland deserve world-class, timely treatment and they’re not getting that right now.”

Ms Power added that there is currently a 30% shortage of radiation therapists in the country, as well as four radiation machines lying idle in hospitals across the country.

Mr Tóibín described the trend in statistics as “worrying”, saying that he was alarmed by the missing of targets on a widespread scale.

“We need to ensure that when a person is diagnosed with cancer and is deemed fit for treatment that there is absolutely no delay on the part of the health service. When a person has cancer it is often a race against time.”

A spokesperson for the HSE said: “The HSE and the National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP) are very aware of the challenges with the Radiation-Oncology services across Ireland, and meet regularly to discuss the mitigation needed to ensure patients are treated in a timely way.”