Debate contribution: Cancer Waiting Times

Debate contribution by Mrs Ciara Ferguson on 12 May 2025.

MLA

Mrs Ciara Ferguson

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

12 May 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Cancer Waiting Times

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4937449

Read the official Assembly record

Text

This subject touches every one of us in the Chamber and, indeed, throughout our communities, whether it be through personal experience or the experience of a family member, friend or neighbour. We have all been affected by cancer. If, by some small chance, you have not been yet, you will be. Obviously, that is the brutal truth of it. Let us be absolutely clear: lengthy waits for a diagnosis can devastate a person's prognosis, limit the treatment options available and place an unbearable burden on the mental health of the patient and their family. That is not acceptable, not in 2025 and not ever. I welcome the £215 million that has been ring-fenced in the Executive's Budget to address waiting lists, but what matters now is how that money is spent. It must be spent efficiently and strategically and not be lost in any bureaucratic layers or swallowed by systems that are no longer fit for purpose. We need a dual focus on short-term capacity and long-term reform. Elective care centres, rapid diagnostic hubs and mega-clinics can make a real difference. So too can better data, better planning and better cross-community trust and cooperation. We cannot just pour money into old models; we must invest in smarter, more sustainable outcomes. This is not just the Minister of Health's responsibility; it is a shared responsibility. The Health Committee, other parties across the Chamber and the wider health and voluntary sectors all stand ready to help the Minister. The people whom we represent want to see action, and we urge the Minister to take the lead and engage proactively with Executive colleagues to drive change across the board. It is also imperative that the voices of teenagers and young people are heard on this issue. Around 115 teenagers and young adults here are diagnosed with cancer every year, and they must be fully represented in healthcare planning and support services. We also need to confront a serious issue: women are more likely to experience late diagnosis and worse outcomes in many non-sex-specific cancers. In bladder, kidney, colorectal, gastric and head-and-neck cancers, women face significantly longer delays than men, sometimes by weeks. Those delays cost lives. Too often, women's symptoms are dismissed or misattributed to stress or menstrual pain. At the same time, women are underrepresented in clinical trials, leading to gaps in understanding of how treatments affect them. Between 2019 and 2023, male-only clinical trials outnumbered female-focused ones by 67%. That is unacceptable. We must raise awareness, equip healthcare professionals with gender-sensitive training and ensure that clinical research includes and reflects the needs of women. I urge all women to attend breast and cervical screening and also to take up bowel screenings, skin checks and other cancer diagnostics. As we know, vigilance saves lives. I take this opportunity to commend the work of Cancer Focus, Cancer Research and a local organisation in my constituency, Hive Cancer Support, which does fantastic work in raising awareness in the local population of the key symptoms and signs to look out for. I urge everyone here, when they see information around that, to continuously share it on social media. Finally, we must think beyond the borders. There are real opportunities in the cross-border healthcare directive and in an all-Ireland approach. We already have outstanding all-Ireland cancer research bodies. We should be building on that, sharing knowledge, expertise and capacity across the island to ensure that no one waits longer than they have to for a diagnosis, a treatment or a fighting chance. Let us match our words with urgency and compassion. Let us ring-fence the funding and make it count. Let us reform, not just react. The people of Ireland deserve nothing less.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

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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