In January I was contacted by a father and husband whose wife had been diagnosed with cancer at the end of November. She had been referred to University Hospital Galway for chemotherapy. She has young children at home and she was obviously extremely worried, first, to be diagnosed with cancer but, second, with a cancer that had taken her mother. About five weeks into waiting for the chemotherapy, she travelled up there, she presented to the accident and emergency department in pain and, eventually, five weeks after her diagnosis, well after the 15 working days that is the targeted timeframe, she received her chemotherapy. She had begged for weeks for chemotherapy and she had not received it. I imagine that if she had not shown up at the accident and emergency department in pain, she would not have received it within five weeks either. In terms of UHG, we know there are significant issues with meeting target timeframes that are in place. We know that in 2025 27% of cancer patients did not get access to chemotherapy within the target timeframe of 15 days. The figures are stark as well when you look at the delays in accessing surgery for prostate cancer, with just 21% of patients in UHG getting the surgery within the recommended timeframe of 30 days, that is, only 21% of patients who needed that surgery getting it within the timeframe and the vast majority not getting it. There is a serious issue with resources and people diagnosed with cancer receiving their treatment or surgery within that targeted timeframe, which is so important. Having to contact a TD to try to get help accessing chemotherapy is really concerning and should not happen.

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