Debate contribution: Cancer Waiting Times

Debate contribution by Mr Alan Chambers on 12 May 2025.

MLA

Mr Alan Chambers

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

12 May 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Cancer Waiting Times

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4937443

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Few issues are as important as cancer care. As we all know, cancer is a disease that does not wait but, instead, often thrives in any period of delay. That is what makes the current challenges, which have existed for a considerable number of years, so intolerable. The delays are being compounded by increasing levels of cancer prevalence. Cancer is increasingly becoming one of those diseases that will impact on all our lives at some point, either directly or indirectly. The motion, understandably, is shining a light on the challenges that undoubtedly face the broader service. Of course, behind every statistic, every percentage or every missed target is a patient and family going through the very real fears and anxieties that come with cancer. For MLAs and, no doubt, the Minister, few issues are considered as seriously as delays in time-critical treatments. Thankfully, tangible actions have been taken and progress has been made in recent times. For instance, the pathways and treatments for blood cancer were far too disjointed, but reviews of the three main pathways have now been completed, and new ways of working have been adopted, with the primary objective of having faster treatment and better outcomes for patients. Equally, waiting times for breast cancer assessments have been genuinely awful. Again, major progress has been made, even in recent days, which I hope will see a much greater equalisation of waiting times in the coming months. We should all hope that the postcode lottery for waiting times, which has seen women in some trusts having to wait much longer than others, will now be at an end once and for all. Last week, we also had an overview from the Minister on how he is going to allocate the elective funding that has been ring-fenced in this year's budget. He has understandably, and rightly, prioritised a proportion from that for tackling the urgent and time-critical waits. As the Minister will likely highlight once again, the vast majority of the £215 million is not new or additional money. I welcome the amendment that has been selected. It emphasises again the importance of multi-year funding. However, for the avoidance of doubt and perhaps to help inform the remainder of the debate, I will give way to any of the signatories to the amendment if they want to clarify that it is asking the Minister of Finance to commit to additional funding, rather than to ring-fencing existing Health funding.

I thank the Member for that clarity. In conclusion, I am really disappointed with the continuing negativity from Mrs Dodds about the reimbursement scheme, which is a genuine attempt to reduce our waiting lists. To say that it will not have an impact on the waiting lists is a nonsense, because if it takes 1,000 people off the waiting list, that means that 1,000 fewer people are ahead of you as you wait for your procedure. When summing up the proposals, I would be interested in the DUP's clarifying whether Mrs Dodds's point of view is, in fact, DUP policy now for that scheme.

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

Assessment

Not qualifying

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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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