Patients' access to urgent cancer treatment varies significantly by location, with considerable delays reported for chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Galway has seen patients waiting seven to eight weeks for chemotherapy despite a 15-day target. Hospitals are failing to meet urgent consultation benchmarks, with the Mater Hospital seeing only 28.5% of symptomatic breast cancer patients in the required timeframe. Significant disparities are evident in urgent lung and prostate cancer clinics, with compliance rates in some hospitals dropping below acceptable levels, leading to increased risk for patients.
“With every week that passes, the risk increases the cancer will grow or worse will spread to other parts of the body,” stated Dr. Michael McCarthy.
Hospitals should urgently see 95% of patients in symptomatic breast cancer clinics in 10 working days, but the Mater Hospital in Dublin fell far short of this.
Compliance for seeing men in urgent prostate rapid access clinics was as low as 12.7% in Galway, highlighting significant disparities in treatment access across regions.
Patients in Galway are typically waiting seven to eight weeks for their first chemotherapy session, far exceeding the expected timeframe of 15 days.
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