Debate contribution: Cancer Waiting Times

Debate contribution by Mr Colin McGrath on 12 May 2025.

MLA

Mr Colin McGrath

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

12 May 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Cancer Waiting Times

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4937432

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you very much, Deputy Speaker. I welcome the opening of the debate and the fact that we are debating this incredibly important motion. It is the sort of thing that we should discuss in this place, because it goes to the core of what impacts on, frightens and scares people in the community. One can think of nothing that does that more than getting a diagnosis of cancer.

The amendment is offered in the spirit of trying to support and help the debate. We want to see a plan for dealing with waiting times, especially those for cancer services. The Health Minister regularly says that there are difficulties with finance. From a cross-Executive perspective, if we were able to ring-fence the funding as it makes its way towards you, Minister, that is exactly what it would be spent on, and it would mean that everybody in the Executive was taking the issue of cancer waiting times seriously. If the Department has and uses that funding, if we know what the outcome of that will be — that x amount of funds will reduce waiting lists by x amount — and if we all know what the funding is up front, there will be no competing for budgets when money goes down into Departments. I mentioned "fear". I use that word deliberately, because it is all too often associated with cancer and cancer waiting times. For generations, the word "cancer" has carried a weight unlike that carried by any other. In the past, it was whispered; it was not spoken. It was the "Big C". It was the diagnosis that people feared more than any other. We know, sadly, that that fear remains. No matter how far medical science has come, the words "It's cancer" can land like a hammer blow. For the patient who receives them, alone or with a family member, it changes their life completely. As an elected representative, I have spoken to people who can recall with perfect clarity the moment when they heard that they had cancer. We all have party colleagues and family members who have received that news. We know that the world goes quiet and that the breath leaves your lungs. Life is then split into before the cancer diagnosis and after the cancer diagnosis. When waiting — waiting to be seen, waiting to know and waiting to begin treatment — is added on top of that fear, it becomes unbearable. It is no longer just the illness that hurts; it is the delay, the uncertainty and the feeling of being forgotten in that system. That is why we cannot speak about waiting times as though they are just dry statistics or an Executive target; they are people's stories and lives. It is our duty to respond with urgency and compassion. I have no doubt that Members across this place are committed to that cause, because none of us is immune to cancer and its impact. We know that more must be done to combat cancer. It is important to look to best practice that we could consider adopting here. Some of that has been referenced. One example is that several NHS trusts in England and in the South now utilise AI and high-resolution digital imaging to analyse tissue biopsies. Little things such as that are being done in different ways to help to speed up diagnosis and, therefore, people's access to treatment. It has enabled faster, more accurate diagnosis, particularly in breast, lung and prostate cancers. In some instances, it has cut diagnostic waiting times by as much as 30%. We can clearly see how that reduces hospital pressures and helps to address health inequalities among those who are more prone to receiving such a diagnosis. We know that the Patrick G Johnston Centre for Cancer Research has commenced work on that, but we should support it further. While new and emerging technologies and new ways of running services are delivering better outcomes, we know that they carry a financial cost. Therefore, it is essential that funding for such services be ring-fenced across multi-year budgets. The reason for proposing the amendment is that we know that, in any sphere, if you know what your budget will be going forward, you can start to plan the work that you will do. You cannot do that if you have one-year budgets all the time or money coming in from monitoring rounds. If the Executive, supported by the Opposition in the House, decide that we want to tackle waiting lists, because it is one of the biggest issues, let us really throw all our might behind it. Let us give the Department the tools that it needs to tackle and reduce waiting lists, especially for cancer. As I have said several times, there is nothing more frightening than getting a cancer diagnosis, but, after getting that diagnosis, there is nothing more insulting than weeks and weeks of radio silence while you wait to access treatment. I really believe that ring-fenced budgets would help. They would give the Health Minister another tool to continue his work of challenging waiting lists and giving the people in our community who get a cancer diagnosis the best possible fighting chance of overcoming it.

875 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:22 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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