Cancer waits ‘completely unacceptable’ says Trust board member

Sean Hegarty, a non-Executive director at the WHSCT, made the observation at the Trust’s January meeting.

Mr. Hegarty spoke of barriers preventing the Trust meeting its 62-day target of facilitating a first treatment for patients urgently referred by GPs for cancer. The latest figures indicated just 40 per cent of patients were treated within 62 days.

"The way things are set up and the way commissioning is done and the way we allow a blind eye to be turned where there simply is not enough resources, not enough money to allow something as serious as that cancer journey to constantly be blocked as it goes down that process and we are sitting at 40 per cent. It is completely unacceptable,” said Mr. Hegarty.

"It's the sort of thing we cannot just listen to and ignore. It is very frustrating,” he added.

He remarked that the staff working within the cancer service locally were equally frustrated by the situation.

"They are very good at what they are doing. They can account for everything that's going on in their world but they can't work miracles,” he said.

Mr. Hegarty was speaking after Teresa Molloy, Director of Performance and Service Improvement at the Western Trust, updated the board on its November performance.

Mrs. Molloy advised members that the Trust had met and exceeded its targets in many areas including its 14 and 31 day cancer targets, imaging services, outpatients, endoscopy, scheduled theatre minutes, domiciliary care targets and children's services targets and that this presented a ‘good and positive’ picture overall.

However, the 62 day cancer target was one area – alongside unscheduled care – where targets were not met.

“The first is the 62 day cancer access target. We are at 40 per cent at this point in time,” said Mrs. Molloy.

Although it failed to meet this target in November, the Trust remained one of the better performing health authorities, she noted.

"While this is very concerning for all of us we know and are very aware of the issues which pertain including significant increases in demand that these services have seen in recent years.

“Despite the fact we are at 40 per cent we remain one of, if not the top performer, each month in the region in cancer services generally,” said Mrs. Molloy.

She told the board that November showed ‘a high performance overall in our Trust with a small number of areas which have complex challenges for our teams’.

These included escalating demands which require investment and issues of flow in hospitals and community services over the pressurised winter period, she said.

Dr. Tom Frawley, Chairman of the Western Trust, remarked: “The 62 days is a huge challenge, not just here in NI but across the whole of the UK, and there is a huge concern about it and again I think there is a resource implication there and indeed all sorts of other complexities.”

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