Auto Amazon Links: No products found. Blocked by captcha.
Jennifer Dummigan’s experience with cancer in Northern Ireland stands out as unusually rapid and positive compared to the more common lengthy waits faced by many patients in the region. Noticing symptoms such as a chest tickle and difficulty eating in December 2023, she consulted her GP in March. By May, she had been diagnosed with oesophageal cancer and began treatment in July. Overall, it took just five months from her initial contact with a doctor to the development of a treatment plan, a timeline which contrasts sharply with the prolonged waiting periods experienced by numerous others. Cancer Research UK has highlighted this disparity, warning that emergency interventions are urgently needed to safeguard patient safety amid extensive backlogs in diagnosis and treatment.
The Department of Health (DoH) in Northern Ireland has acknowledged that current cancer waiting times are unacceptable, emphasizing that resolving these delays remains a priority. They are collaborating with regional health trusts to address the fundamental problems causing slow patient progress. For Dummigan, the promptness of her treatment was critical to her positive outcome. She strongly believes her prognosis was favorable because she received care quickly and credits the medical teams at the cancer center for her current cancer-free status, as confirmed by recent scans.
Dummigan, 54, residing in Craigavon, expressed great empathy for those stuck on waiting lists, noting how every day can impact the likelihood of successful treatment. She described the hospital team as “superb,” sharing that she was diagnosed at stage two and underwent five weeks of chemotherapy followed by an oesophagectomy in October. Despite some setbacks during her recovery, she remains grateful for the prompt intervention that has made her survival possible. Highlighting the mental as well as physical strain of cancer, she recounted how a friend who waited six months for treatment felt almost resentful of how quickly Dummigan was seen. She argues firmly that timely treatment should not depend on where a patient lives or the type of cancer they have, but should be equally accessible for everyone through the health service.
Naser Turabi, director of evidence at Cancer Research UK, described the cancer services in Northern Ireland as being “in crisis,” stressing the urgent need for a system-wide approach to prioritize patients with the highest clinical urgency. He pointed out that delays worsen outcomes, increasing mortality risk and psychological distress; even a one-month delay in treatment can hike death risk by 6-10% for common cancers. Turabi has called on the Northern Ireland Executive to implement an emergency stabilization plan to reduce the backlog of patients awaiting diagnosis and treatment. This dire situation is reflected in the latest statistics, which reveal that Northern Ireland performs significantly worse than the rest of the UK on key cancer waiting-time targets, with only 30.1% of patients beginning treatment within 62 days of an urgent GP referral, far below the 95% target
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More
Auto Amazon Links: No products found. Blocked by captcha.