Stephen Donnelly, the Health Minister, has expressed his ambition to increase the financing dedicated to the National Cancer Strategy in the forthcoming budget. Despite stating that funding for cancer services has never been as substantial, he feels the necessity for oncologists and cancer specialists to avail diagnostic tools, operative theatres, and outpatient clinics during weekends.
His statement arrives in the wake of warnings from the nation’s top experts that the set waiting periods for cancer tests aren’t being achieved, and operations often face delay due to a shortage in theatre space, staff, and beds. They penned an open letter to Taoiseach Simon Harris highlighting these issues.
The clinicians noted that in only two of the past seven budgets has the National Cancer Strategy received its full funding. They also highlighted other areas of shortfall, including an underfunded infrastructure despite a rise in cancer cases, and radiotherapy services operating considerably below their full capacity.
Donnelly responded by saying that the budget has seen significant investment into the cancer strategy over three of their four years in power. He mentioned he had allocated €14 million to the strategy in its first two years, an amount which continued to roll over as they were unable to fully utilise this investment straight away.
The Health Minister underlined the importance of the National Cancer Strategy as a primary source of funding, expressing his goal to increase the investment for the 2025 budget. Donnelly believes that the situation for patients is improving and declared his commitment to ensure those in need gain swift access to referral services.
“Surgeons’ frustration with surgeries being delayed due to unpredictable intake through the emergency department is understandable,” he conceded. To address this, he suggested that the consistent use of operating facilities seven days a week, including early mornings and evenings, should complement the conventional Monday to Friday schedule.
He stressed the importance of ensuring that oncologists and other cancer care professionals should have flexible, weekend access to critical services like diagnostics, theatre, and outpatient clinics. The objective of the new public-only consulting contract is to facilitate the transition from a standard nine-to-six service five days a week, to a service that spans seven days, inclusive of mornings and evenings.
He further noted that a review of public nursing homes was underway in an effort to determine cost-effectiveness. Mr. Donnelly expressed the need to assess whether staffing ratios were apt and whether there was scope for saving resources. He was quick to caveat, however, that any cost differences between private and public nursing homes identified in the review could be entirely fair.
Concluding, he emphasised that he wasn’t drawing conclusions ahead of the audit. Still, possible learning opportunities might emerge from the review, particularly if some public nursing homes are found to be functioning more efficiently than others.